Category: Shetland 2023

Honestly, it is hard to describe the actual Up Helly Aa celebration. You will need to come and experience it for yourselves!

We had some free time after the morning parade, and Geoff and I had a wander through the downtown, where I bought some Shetland wool and a Fair Isle hat. Then back to the hotel for a bit to rest up before the evening. Headed back to the town centre around 5 PM, and from then everything went wild.

We hadn’t quite understood this bit of it before actually being there, but about 1,000 marchers began to come down the hill and form up along the sides of the road. Each one was part of a squad, and they are called guizers (pronounced GUY-zer). The big stars of Up Helly Aa are the Jarl’s Squad, ie the Vikings we saw in the morning, but all 47 squads of guizers had a theme of some kind. Ones I can remember included: Where’s Waldo, Elvis Presley, Sidewalk Chewing Gum, Singing In The Rain, but the list goes on and on. They dress in theme, and later perform in theme. As they formed up along the road, the excitement in the crowd was running high and then suddenly a big firework went off with a bang above us, and at that signal the first few torches were lit in front of the Community Centre. (As an aside, if you check out the photo below, you will see on the left of the Community Centre the Town Offices, which were used as the police station in the TV show Shetland.)

From this point, the torches of the 1,000 or so guizers were lit, and they began a circuitous walking route around the area, with the Viking galley boat being pulled along behind them. It took about half an hour to do the parade through and pull the galley to its final destination in the centre of an open park, and what a spectacle — the line of flaming torches snaked for about a mile, the heat from the torches was like being beside a big bonfire, the guizers were roaring, and the crowds were cheering — and then one more big firework went off above us, and the guizers threw their 1,000 torches into the galley, which went up in an unbelievable roar of flames, fanned by the usual Shetland winds, with huge drifts of sparks making a red Milky Way across the sky.

Then back to the hotel for an hour or so to recover and change out of our many layers of windproof and weatherproof clothing, and off to an all-night party, although I have to confess we left at 1 AM. The party was also terrific, all the squads were taking turns coming through the 30 or so official parties and doing their performance at each. They ranged from unbelievably talented to slightly hokey, but always a wonderful and energetic mixture of singing and dancing, truly a “live performance”.

It was certainly an experience, and if you are looking for a slightly different Scottish holiday, this might be the one! And ps, Geoff DID make it to the BBC News, one of my cousins saw him on the telly last night! What a star… 🌟

The event that brought us here is Up Helly Aa, a Viking-themed fire festival celebrating the beginning of the end of the long dark winter nights. Shetland is actually closer to Norway than to mainland Scotland, and has many archaeological remnants and cultural aspects that are Norse. We are very far north, the same latitude as St. Petersburg, Russia, and Churchill, Manitoba, and they see only about six hours of daylight here at the darkest season.

Local teams plan and prepare for much of the year, and this morning’s parade was by Vikings in raven-wing helmets, with axes and shields, marching through the town of Lerwick. The day will be capped off tonight with the burning of a Viking ship (built each year for this specific purpose). The 1,000 or so participants are made up of many “squads”, with the lead squad or Jarl’s Squad wearing the Viking dress. Theirs was the parade we followed this morning. Here’s a link to a YouTube video, hope it works for you if you have any interest in seeing it:

https://www.shetland.org/videos/recent-videos/shetlands-fire-festival-season

Surprisingly, Geoff turned out to be a media darling. Perhaps because of his unusual hat, bought in Iceland a few years ago, he was interviewed on-camera by the BBC about his impressions of Shetland and the festival, and then about 10 minutes later he had a similar interview by Agence France-Presse!

The festivities continue this afternoon. We scored tickets for a music concert, then will attend the torchlight parade and boat burning, and — hoping we can stay awake for this — we got tickets for a party after the boat burning tonight 🔥 🔥 🔥

We survived the 12-plus hour crossing from Aberdeen to Lerwick with no seasickness, but as anticipated it was rough. At one point, we were sliding up and down in our beds, alternately touching toes to the foot then heads to the top. It felt like being a character in a Roadrunner cartoon. But very thankful to have maintained our sea legs with no dizziness.

Spent the last day and a half touring and enjoying these windswept isles. It’s not terribly cold, but the wind is incredible, it would take the skin off your nose. They warn us not to walk “close to the edges” as we are always near the sea, and we can see why. People with small children keep a tight grip, as otherwise they can be blown onto the roads.

The scenery is beautiful, and some of it would be very familiar to you if you have watched the TV series Shetland. Visited a variety of scenic spots, from Clickimin Broch, a 2,000-year-old fort, to the [pretend] home of TV detective Jimmy Perez in Lerwick.

And to close things off, I don’t know how many of you do the daily Wordle, but yesterday I decided to start with a Shetland word, and then another Shetland word, and I got it in 3. How funny is this? It sums up our vacation in 5 letters! 😂

The Shetland adventure begins! I myself had a really enjoyable week-plus in Scotland visiting with my cousins, then Geoff arrived Thursday for the next leg. We left Edinburgh this morning with our tour group, and have arrived in Aberdeen to catch the overnight ferry to Shetland for the Up Helly Aa festival on Tuesday. We are feeling quite lucky, as the weather forecast for tomorrow is not favourable, and tomorrow’s ferry has already been cancelled, but we seem to be good to go (touch wood) although we have been warned the crossing may be a wee bit rough.

Just before Aberdeen, we stopped at Dunnottar Castle to stretch our legs and, while I didn’t intend to share pre-Shetland Scottish photos, I decided to share this one. The location is amazing, hope you agree.

Hoping we reach Shetland tomorrow not too green around the gills — 🤞🏻– and will post a few pics as we go. No sign of Jimmy Perez or Tosh on the boat, although we are keeping our eyes peeled.