Up Helly Aa looks like a Viking tradition…. but it’s more Victorian than Viking.
The Lerwick Up-Helly Aa was first established by the Total Abstinence Society in the 1870s to give the young men who would otherwise drink themselves silly something to do. The name itself derives from Upholiday, the lowland Scots’ word for Twelfth Day, and was brought by them to the Shetland Islands in the 19th century.
The current Lerwick celebration grew out of the older yule tradition of tar barrelling which took place at Christmas and New Year as well as Up Helly Aa. Squads of young men would drag barrels of burning tar through town on sledges, making mischief. According to the Shetland Museum, the catalyst for the establishment of Up Helly Aa was the boredom of young men after their return from fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, which had given them an opportunity to see spectacles abroad. Concern over public safety and levels of drunkenness led to a change in the celebrations, and saw them drawing inspiration from the islands’ Viking history.
After the abolition of tar barrelling around 1874–1880, permission was eventually obtained for torch processions. The first Yule torch procession took place in 1876. The first torch celebration on Up Helly Aa Day took place in 1881. The following year the torchlit procession was significantly enhanced and institutionalised through a request by a Lerwick civic body to hold another Up Helly Aa torch procession for the visit of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. The first galley was fabricated and burned in 1889.
In 1894 Haldane Burgess, a Shetland author, wrote the book The Viking Path which was a major influence in creating the Viking theme of the Up Helly Aa festival. Burgess also wrote the Up Helly Aa Song which is sung at the burning of the replica longship and elsewhere. The honorary role of the ‘Jarl’ was introduced to the festival in the early twentieth century.
In reality, despite many sources claiming these ancient origins, the festival, and many like it, were products of Victorian do-goodery.
2 comments
I need to go one year, these photos make it look amazing: [https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/6681590/up-helly-aa-2025-photo-gallery/](https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/6681590/up-helly-aa-2025-photo-gallery/)
(all credit to The Press and Journal)
Up Helly Aa looks like a Viking tradition…. but it’s more Victorian than Viking.
The Lerwick Up-Helly Aa was first established by the Total Abstinence Society in the 1870s to give the young men who would otherwise drink themselves silly something to do. The name itself derives from Upholiday, the lowland Scots’ word for Twelfth Day, and was brought by them to the Shetland Islands in the 19th century.
The current Lerwick celebration grew out of the older yule tradition of tar barrelling which took place at Christmas and New Year as well as Up Helly Aa. Squads of young men would drag barrels of burning tar through town on sledges, making mischief. According to the Shetland Museum, the catalyst for the establishment of Up Helly Aa was the boredom of young men after their return from fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, which had given them an opportunity to see spectacles abroad. Concern over public safety and levels of drunkenness led to a change in the celebrations, and saw them drawing inspiration from the islands’ Viking history.
After the abolition of tar barrelling around 1874–1880, permission was eventually obtained for torch processions. The first Yule torch procession took place in 1876. The first torch celebration on Up Helly Aa Day took place in 1881. The following year the torchlit procession was significantly enhanced and institutionalised through a request by a Lerwick civic body to hold another Up Helly Aa torch procession for the visit of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. The first galley was fabricated and burned in 1889.
In 1894 Haldane Burgess, a Shetland author, wrote the book The Viking Path which was a major influence in creating the Viking theme of the Up Helly Aa festival. Burgess also wrote the Up Helly Aa Song which is sung at the burning of the replica longship and elsewhere. The honorary role of the ‘Jarl’ was introduced to the festival in the early twentieth century.
In reality, despite many sources claiming these ancient origins, the festival, and many like it, were products of Victorian do-goodery.
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