I’m starting to write this article on the day the Chinese New Year begins. That date of this celebration varies of course, because the Chinese calendar follows the lunar cycle, ...

Revellers gathered on Shetland for the annual Up Helly Aa fire festival. The event marks the end of the Yule season in Nordic culture, and features “guizers” in Viking costume marching through Lerwick ...

Residents of Shetland in the UK celebrate their Viking heritage at the Up Helly Aa fire festival, held in Lerwick.View on ...

Revellers have gathered on Shetland for the annual Up Helly Aa fire festival. The event marks the end of the Yule season in Nordic culture, and features “guizers” in Viking costume marching through ...

The event marks the end of the Yule season in Nordic culture, and features “guizers” in Viking costume marching through Lerwick, bearing torches. The event culminated in the burning of an ...

Here is everything you need to know about Up Helly Aa in Shetland as the fiery festival returns this week for 2025.

The event is held in communities across Shetland to mark the end of the Yule season. In 1824, a visiting Methodist missionary wrote in his diary that “the whole town was in an uproar" and ...