INSIDE SCOTLAND'S WILD SHIP-BURNING VIKING PARTY

An all-night rager with enough flames to torch a city

Partying with Vikings is not for the faint of heart. The wind and rain is blistering, paraffin from almost 900 torches burns your eyes, and there's a 10-hour marathon of dancing and drinking. But that's what you do for Up Helly Aa—loosely translated as "end of holidays"—the Shetland Islands' annual midwinter festival celebrating northern Scotland's Norse past, complete with elaborate costumes, detailed rituals, and the burning of a full-sized Viking ship.

One thousand Shetlanders—all men—take part in Up Helly Aa, which has been celebrated since the late 1800s. That's not to say all torchbearers are equal. The event, held the last Tuesday of January in the city of Lerwick (with a handful of satellite celebrations throughout the Shetlands before and after), sets out a clear hierarchy, requiring more than a decade to move up to the top spot. The men are organized into dozens of squads, the highest-ranking of which is the Jarl Squad, with the top Viking—the Guizer Jarl—at its head.

Guizer Jarl (pronounced guy-zer yarl) is the commander of Up Helly Aa. He guides the many events throughout the day and stands atop the galley in the big procession at night, and his face adorns the souvenir programs, posters, and covers of local magazines covering the festival.

This year's Guizer Jarl, Lyall Gair (who assumed the Viking name of Sweyn "Forkbeard" Haraldsson for the festivities) rose up the ranks of the Up Helly Aa committee over a 15-year period and started planning for this year's festival at least two years ago. He saved money for his squad's detailed Viking uniforms for far longer.

The uniforms—all handmade and custom-fit for the 58 Jarl Squad members of all ages and sizes—consisted of chainmail, leather breastplate and cuffs emblazoned with a lion's head, and a hefty shield and metal helmet, both weighing several pounds each.

That wouldn't be much to haul around for an hour or two, but Up Helly Aa is an all-day affair for the Jarl Squad. This year's festival started with Guizer Jarl and his squad, accompanied by the Lerwick Royal British Legion Pipe Band and later the Lerwick Brass Band, parading through town. They made stops at the legion hall and local businesses (after first dropping in on Guizer Jarl's grandma), eventually making their way to Alexandria Wharf, where the crew posed with the galley they would soon be destroying.

It's not just the outfits that require time and money. Months of preparation were involved in designing and building the ship, as well as almost a thousand torches with heads of paraffin-soaked hessian sacks. Building began at the end of October, with volunteers working at least four nights a week up until the day of the festival to ensure the work was done. All of this was overseen by the committee of 17 elected members, the most senior of which was the Guizer Jarl. When Lyall Gair retires from this position and the committee this year, a new committeeman will join, and the next most senior member will become the top Viking.

All of this was just prologue to the big event—the night's fire festival. As the Jarl Squad arrived, the members of the 46 other squads (each with its own themed costumes, from Trolls to the Beach Boys and many involving cross-dressing) lined up in two rows stretching back a few city blocks. These men are called guizers, as in "disguisers." Fireworks shot off, and Guizer Jarl's Squad and the Brass Band passed back down the ranks, with the various squads lighting torches as they passed. And so the procession began.

Read the full story at Esquire.