[MR] BBC: Up Helly Aa Fire Festival

[Groff, Garth (ggg9y)]

Noble Friends, Especially Scots and Vikings,

Today is Up Hella Aa, Shetland's answer to Mardi Gras. Each year this celebration of Viking culture includes drinking, parades, drinking, walking around in pseudo-Viking costumes with flaming torches, drinking, burning the Viking longboat, followed by more drinking. The next day is, appropriately, also a holiday to allow everyone to recover from the drinking.

Looks like great fun, at least the first day.

The focal point of the festival are the Jarl Squads, dressed in elaborate faux-Viking uniforms. Viking uniforms? Yes. So they aren't really authentic, but they are striking.

The actual boat burning won't be until tonight, so some of these photos must have been from past years.

Here's the slide show: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-21243408

Followed by a text & video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-21229313

And if you would like to see previous years' festivals (with different costumes), here is the home page Up Helly Aa (click on "gallery" at left): http://www.uphellyaa.org/

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot