Are you looking for a fancy dress theme for a party in the deepest of winter? We think we’ve found one of the best with the celebration of Up Helly Aa based on the Norse tradition of burning a galley and sending it to Valhalla.
Every January the town of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands goes more than a little mad with the burning of their Viking galley. The defiant boast of the organising committee is that “There will be no postponement for weather”Nothing has yet stopped the Up Helly Aa guizers from creating a superb spectacle which although only lasting one day and one night bears testament to the grit and determination in the face of anything that the weather of mid-winter may bring viking axes .
Up Helly Aa is a superb spectacle and a celebration of Shetland history. Dubbed the northern Mardi Gras the celebrations are led by the ‘Guizer Jarl’ who adopts a character from the Norse Sagas. Wearing a costume that may have taken two years in the making and donning a raven-winged helmet and armed with traditional axe and shield he will embark on a 24 hour marathon which will see him standing at the helm of his doomed galley as he watches over 800 to 1,000 disguised men shouldering blazing torches form a blazing procession snaking its way towards the burning site.
Pulling the Galley on its way to the burning site and it’s being sent to Valhalla is an elite squad of Vikings. Known as Jarl’s Squad this group of warriors remains the same for each festival with its ranks swollen for the procession by invitees. To be invited to join Jarl’s Squad is a great privilege and a once in a lifetime event. It takes Jarl’s Squad around 30 minutes to drag the galley through the thousands of spectators to the burning site.