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The last Tuesday
On the last Tuesday in January, up to a thousand guizers march through Lerwick
Each year on the last Tuesday in January a torchlit procession of costumed guizers, up to a thousand of them, marches through the streets of Lerwick. It ends with the torches thrown into a replica Viking longship. Up Helly Aa marks the end of the Yule season.
The foundation stone
Torches followed the laying of the foundation stone on 24 January 1882
Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, laid the hall's foundation stone on a visit to the isles on 24 January 1882. That same evening Lerwick saw its first ever Up Helly Aa torchlight procession. A Lerwick civic body had asked for a torch procession for his visit, and the hall itself opened in 1883.
Tar barrels
Before the torches and the galley, young men dragged burning barrels of tar
The Lerwick celebration grew out of tar barrelling: squads of young men dragged barrels of burning tar through town on sledges, making mischief. Concern over public safety and drunkenness brought a change, and permission was eventually obtained for torch processions. The first galley was fabricated and burned in 1889.
A Victorian idea
The Total Abstinence Society first set up the Lerwick festival in the 1870s
Despite many claims of ancient origins, the festival was a product of Victorian do-goodery, set up to give young men something to do. In 1894 Haldane Burgess, a Shetland author, wrote The Viking Path, a major influence on the Viking theme. He also wrote the Up Helly Aa Song, sung at the burning of the replica longship.
The Jarl
A Jarl serves 15 years on a committee, and since 2023 women may join squads
A person must be on the committee for 15 years before becoming a jarl, and only one person is elected to it each year. The guizers in Lerwick have traditionally been male, though some women joined the march in 1901 disguised in their costumes. From the 2023 festival, restrictions on women's participation within squads were removed.
Day 2, evening
It comes after Commercial Street.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Lerwick Town Hall and the Wikipedia article Up Helly Aa, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.