Up Helly-Aa

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Up Helly Aa is any of a variety of fire festivals held in Shetland annually in the middle of winter. The festival involves a procession of guizers (or guisers) formed into squads processing through the town or village in a variety of themed costumes. Due to the often flamboyant costumes and the large quantity of males dressing up as females, it has earned the joke name 'Transvestite Tuesday'. There is a main guizer who is dubbed the "Jarl". There is a committee which you must be part of for fifteen years before you can be a jarl, and only one person is elected onto this committee once a year.

This procession culminates in the torches being thrown into a replica Viking longship or galley. The event happens all over towns in Shetland, but it is only the Lerwick galley which is not sent seaward. Everywhere else, the galley is sent seabound, in an echo of actual Viking sea burials.

After the procession the squads visit local halls (this includes Schools, Sports Facilities and Hotels) where private parties are held. At each hall each squad performs its act, this may be a send-up of a popular TV show or film, a skit on local events, or singing or dancing, usually in flamboyant costume.

The Lerwick Up Helly Aa is claimed by some to be Britain's biggest fire festival and torchlight procession. However this may have been surpassed by a New Year event held in Edinburgh. The Lerwick festival always takes place on the last Tuesday in January, and is the largest in Shetland. Also, there are traditionally no women allowed in the Lerwick Up Helly-Aa, although Lerwick is the only Up Helly Aa location where this happens.