Up Helly Aa: Women and girls join Lerwick fire festival squads

Women and girls are set to take part in the torchlit procession at Lerwick’s Up Helly Aa fire festival for the first time in its 142-year history.

Females have traditionally been restricted to participating as hostesses.

This involved organising the all-night parties that take place in community halls across the Shetland capital.

But organisers last year agreed to lift the gender restrictions for the main procession.

The decision followed a campaign dating back to the 1980s.

Tuesday’s celebration will also have added significance as it is the first to be held since the Covid pandemic.

Andrea Manson, convenor of Shetland Islands Council, said: “It’s a big day for Up Helly Aa, a huge day for Lerwick and a much anticipated day for the Guizer Jarl and his squad who’ve waited three long years for this.

“There’s an extra buzz of excitement in the air this year because the lasses are getting to join in.”

She said that “at long last” Lerwick had caught up with other Up Helly Aas in Shetland where women and girls had been participating for many years.

“We’re all delighted to see that,” she added.

Held on the last Tuesday of every January, the spectacular event is designed to celebrate Shetland’s Norse heritage with song, axes and shields.

It is a descendent of the ancient festival of Yule which the Vikings held to celebrate the rebirth of the sun after a long dark winter.

In recent years, the gender restrictions at the heart of the biggest fire festival in Europe have caused heated debate in the local community.

But following talks about how they could take the event forward after the pandemic, the Lerwick Up Helly Aa committee last June ruled to drop the restrictions.

Johan Adamson, from the group Up Helly Aa for Aa (All) said: “There’s been a lot of people through the last 40 years campaigning for this and its fantastic.

“It was so important. There was so much wrong with what was happening like the girls being excluded, that was just such a big wrong.

“You can’t sit in primary school and get involved and see the squads, make your shields, make your helmet and then be told that at 11 and 12 you can’t be in it.

“There’s no controversy anymore, all that controversy about no girls taking part has stopped, so everybody can react in a positive way to the festival and long may it continue.”

Almost 30 girls have signed up to take part in this year’s Junior Up Helly Aa – a third of the 108 participants in the procession.

Registration for the 2023 event, which has been held since 1950, was open to all young people across Shetland in Primary 7 and secondary pupils in S1 and S2.

Sunniva is among the children taking part in the landmark event.

She said: “I think it’s really nice and really good that the girls are getting to do this now and like breaking down boundaries.

“I’ve watched it many times. The torches are quite heavy so practising makes it a lot lighter.

“It’s kind of fun holding the torches around with your friends.”

Andrew said he was “looking forward to being able to chuck the torches in the galley and the march around the park”.

The schoolboy also welcomed the progress that has been made.

He added: “It’s good that both genders can participate in this amazing event.”

Junior Jarl (chief viking) James is following in the footsteps of his relatives.

He said: “My granddad was Jarl fifty years ago, from this year my uncle was a Junior Jarl 32 years ago and is meant to be Senior Jarl in 2030.

“So its a huge thing Up Helly Aa for my family so its great to keep the tradition going.”

In 2015, the smaller South Mainland Up Helly Aa Fire Festival appointed Lesley Simpson as its first female guizer Jarl.

Ms Simpson led a mixed-sex procession of Viking warriors in the South Mainland Up Helly Aa festival.

The event is one of several Viking-themed torchlit processions held on Shetland every year.

But until this year, only men were allowed to take part in the main Up Helly Aa festival in the capital, Lerwick, which dates back to 1881.

Tonight, a small number of women will make history when they join the senior torchlight street procession for the first time.

However, local musician and broadcaster Claire White predicted any change would be gradual.

Her husband Michael Johnson took part in this year’s Scalloway Fire Festival on the 13 January, the first fire festival to return to Shetland since Covid.

The couple’s three-year-old daughter Solfrid, which means “beautiful sun” in Norwegian, was a Viking princess at the event.

Ms White said: “It’s unlikely we’re going to see ranks of female faces among the Viking guizers.

“We’ll still see a lot of beards in evidence because we have to appreciate this Viking Squad began their preparatory work over 15 years ago and its difficult to make changes at a late stage when a new format for the festival is announced.

“I think gradually over time the festival will evolve in a new way with more female input.”

She added that change was most evident in the junior festival, where the gender balance was more equal than it had ever been.

Meanwhile, anticipation is building across the islands as the spectacular event returns.

This year’s Guizer Jarl Neil Moncrieff said: “Up Helly Aa means so much for Lerwick and Shetland.

“It celebrates our historic Norse links and you see just how many people around the town are looking forward to it.”

Tonight, as hundreds of torches are lifted aloft, its Shetland’s sons and now its daughters that are lighting the way for years to come.

Three cheers for Up Helly Aa.