The Sheepish Traveller: Up Helly Aa, A Viking Fire Festival

It is going to be very difficult to put down into words the Up Helly Aa experience, a fire festival in one of the most remote places in the world, the Shetland Islands. Perhaps the reason behind this is because Up Helly Aa means nothing, it signifies nothing. Essentially, in the cold, lonely, and very very dark winter months on Shetland, all the men in town decided to build a giant boat, dress up in all sorts of crazy costumes, get really drunk and then burn that boat down. The festival is also really split into two parts that don't seem to have much in common, the viking bit, which could logically be seen as a celebration of the Shetlanders Norse heritage, and then the totally mental bit, where basically every male is divided into different squads, each dressed in a costume, that go through the town all night long putting on short carnivalesque skits for the women (awaiting them in various halls), then dance with all the woman, drink lots and go on their way. The costumes are incredibly thorough, entirely matching down to the shoes, and also very not PC (I can't even write down some of the outfits I saw), but mostly it was a lot of cross-dressing. So much so that I think Up Helly Aa could reasonably be referred to as Tranny Tuesday. It is definitely a celebration put on by locals for locals, so it was an incredible authentic cultural experience, unlike any other I've even heard of. I don't even know how I can further describe this day and still make sense, so perhaps these few photos will help clarify the day.

The Morning