Rise to the fire, break through the darkness. 🔥 This Scottish Arctic island is home to a soul-stirring ancient celebration, Up Helly Aa 🎉

The Viking Fire Festival is the largest fire festival in Europe, with a history of 140+ years, and is an ancient tradition on the island. People dressed as pirates 🏴‍☠️ have a flaming ☄️ parade. After a week of touring the city, their warships are set alight. All night long celebrations are held wishing for a successful year ✨.

🙏🏻 Through the Viking fire festival, people are believed to break through the darkness of winter and welcome new beginnings and hope 🎇.

🕗 Overall process on Festival day:

✔️8:15am Jarl's squad, dressed as Viking warriors, escorts the leader (Jarl) on a parade, visiting schools, churches and hospitals.

✔️19:30pm The procession lit torches and started from the top of the hill (below the city hall).

✔️ The last site of the parade is burning site: Viking soldiers throw their torches at their ships, which are then engulfed in flames as the celebration continues.

I boarded the ship knowing nothing about Shetland. Lying in a pod with nothing to do, I looked Up the Tourist Board website to find out what to do and found Up Helly Aa, the latest of which coincided with my stay in Shetland.

Scalloway is a 20min bus ride from Lerwick, so the plan to head north to Unst was abandoned, opting to stay on the main island and wander around. Another name for Up Helly Aa is Fire Festival, a Shetland tradition where residents dress up as Viking warriors (or squad for other themed costumes).

A parade of torches is lit in the streets, and eventually they reach the sea, throw all the torches into the boat, and then push the boat into the sea as a sacrifice, and then everyone returns to the warm room to drink and sing and dance until dawn.

Full information about Up Helly Aa can be found on the Tourist Board's website. The next play is 1/30 Lerwick, followed by 2/9 Delting, with two matches in January, four in February and three in March.

Equally interesting as the fire Festival is the Hall activity in the second half, there are six sub-venues on the day, each squad will perform theme programs, which are basically stage plays/sketches, about 20 minutes, a large number of props are beautifully made, and people will laugh at each other. In the middle of the programs, there is dancing time, and a band will perform traditional Scottish songs on the stage. Young girls dancing Kelly in short halter skirts.

It was a windy and windy day, and Shetland itself was cold, so people came and went in jacquard sweaters, woolen hats, or breaded down jackets, but inside the Hall, the girls wore short skirts and high heels, made up and curled their hair, It seems that the Fire Festival is also a local Homecoming or Winter Ball.

To dance is mainly high school girls, there are junior high school girls, of course, who want to dance can go to the stage, and occasionally have just finished the show of the uncle mixed in.

🙌🏻 In addition, Nesting east of Teland is scheduled for February 9th. Yell will also host a regional Viking fire festival on February 23rd, as well. If Lerwick can't make it, consider spending the rest of the island

⛰️🤹🏻‍♀️ Located above the Arctic Circle, the Shetland Islands are Britain's northernmost point and one of the three most beautiful islands in the world, according to National Geographic magazine. This ultra-small travel destination has as authentic blue seascape as any other island 🌊, Eshaness Lighthouse (the End of the Earth) 💡, the UK's northernmost theatre, the northernmost bus station and other attractions worth punching-in winter, there is also a chance to catch the aurora! 🌃