[MR] BBC: Up Helly Aa Viking Festival

[Garth Groff]

Noble friends,

31 January is the date of the annual Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival, 
celebrated in the Shetlands. This involves "jarl squads" (like Mardi 
Gras "crews") marching in elaborate pseud-Viking outfits, burning a 
longship, following/followed by lots of drinking. Sounds like fun?

Here are some BBC photos of the festival: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16829485 .

And after the PetMeds commercial, you can see a video clip here: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16826966 .

The official Up Helly Aa web site is at 
http://www.uphellyaa.org/about-up-helly-aa/history . Galleries of past 
jarl squads can be found under the listings for previous years.

Not to be outdone, a village in Lincolnshire (England) staged their own 
Viking funeral festival to raise money for the parish hall:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-14449850 . These guys 
seem a bit more realistic, except for the sobriety part.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot