Up-Helly-Aa and Burning the Clavie

While Hogmanay remains the strongest communal celebration in mainland Scotland, in the remote Shetland islands, more deeply Norse in their ancestry than any other part of Scotland, the Lerwick fire festival of Up-Helly-Aa marks the end of the 24 days of Yule.

For 500 years (9th-13th century) during their occupation of a large part of Scotland, the Vikings feasted, danced, joined hands and whirled in a circle round symbolic, fire-worshipping bonfires. Though they were eventually defeated at the battle of Largs in 1263, and converted by the Celts to the Christian church, the spirit of the Viking Yule remains strong on the islands where its roots are deepest. In the 19th century, and for some time into the 20th, Yule day in Shetland continued to be celebrated not on 25 December but on 6 January, which was according to the old calendar, changed in 1752.