Lerwick holds Up Helly Aa fireplace pageant with girls participating for first time | Scotland

It started with a flare fired overhead into the darkness. Then the torches erupted into flame, casting an intense orange glow over a squad of younger Vikings, different boys and, for the primary time, torch-carrying ladies.

Up Helly Aa, the Viking-inspired fireplace pageant which has reworked the cruel darkish winters on Shetland for greater than 140 years, was beneath means. First got here the junior procession, torches held aloft earlier than being thrown onto a ceremonial Viking longship, and later got here the grownup parade, 900-people robust, braving gusting winds and rain.

Chromed armour and helmets shone; raven feathers had been framed in silhouette by the torches; woollen capes billowed within the stiff Atlantic wind and ceremonial axes had been thrust into the evening air earlier than scores of torches had been flung onto the wood longship, rapidly incinerated.

Suspended for the final two years by the Covid disaster, this yr’s Up Helly Aa in Lerwick, Shetland’s capital, is historic. Ladies and ladies have been admitted for the primary time after a many years’ lengthy marketing campaign for equality, and several other sporadic rebellions.

The 108-strong junior parade, youngsters aged 11 to 14, has set the equalities commonplace with 27 ladies becoming a member of this yr as guizers – the torch-carrying celebrants who parade behind the Viking-clad jarl or chief’s squad which leads the procession. A handful of ladies and one other three ladies then joined the grownup procession as guizers in fancy gown or as assistants, parading behind the jarl squad and this yr’s guizer jarl, Neil Moncrieff.

Chloe Bryant, 11, was one of many 27 ladies concerned for the primary time within the junior parade. She mentioned it had been “actually thrilling and good” to be concerned, including that she was eager to hold a torch as a result of it was an era-defining second for Lerwick’s girls and ladies.

Zara Pennington, a number one determine within the feminist Reclaim the Raven marketing campaign which has, with its sister organisation Up Helly Aa for Aa, spearheaded the equalities marketing campaign, mentioned this small change was a defining second.

“We’re so glad to see ladies in junior Up Helly Aa – that was a significant breakthrough for equality; and I might be so completely happy to see girls within the seniors,” she mentioned. “It’s a significant step ahead for girls’s equality in Shetland.”

The inevitability of the reform grew to become clear final Could when Shetland Islands council turn into led, for the primary time, by three girls. Andrea Manson was elected as convenor or presiding officer; its political chief, Emma Macdonald, and chief government, Maggie Sandison, are additionally feminine.

That despatched a robust sign to Lerwick’s all-male Up Helly Aa committee; smaller Up Helly Aa festivals in Shetland have lengthy allowed girls to participate – one electing a feminine jarl, or earl, in 2015, however Lerwick’s males had nonetheless resisted. “It was a second of readability,” Manson mentioned. For James Morrison, this yr’s junior jarl, there was no fuss among the many boys about ladies becoming a member of: “It’s good that they get a go.”

On the Scottish mainland, different highly effective male-only establishments had already bowed to intense native and nationwide strain to simply accept gender equality, together with the Royal & Historic and Muirfield golf golf equipment, and the widespread driving festivals of the Scottish Borders.

In Shetland, nevertheless, it’s understood the warnings had been blunt: until Lerwick’s organising committee allowed girls to participate their use of publicly-owned amenities, together with the play park the place longships had been burnt, may effectively be withdrawn.

Shetland’s Up Helly Aa, its title derived from the Norn, the Norse-derived dialect of Shetland, for the Christian pageant days after Christmas, is a Victorian-era invention. The primary torch-lit procession was held in 1881, and the Viking theme started in 1889.

Equalities activists are not sure how quickly girls will be part of Lerwick’s Viking-dressed jarl squad. Jarl squads are chosen as much as 16 years upfront, which makes their members very protecting about their positions, however a spokeswoman for Up Helly Aa for Aa mentioned which will rapidly change.

“Each squad has an allowance of members and it will likely be as much as squad members to ask girls into their squads,” she mentioned. “Hearsay has it that there could also be some feminine members of subsequent yr’s jarl squad! We won’t know till the pageant takes place.”

Ladies have intervened previously. In 1902, a bunch of ladies hid their identities in costumes and joined in, however had been detected. In 1985, a bunch of 13-year-old ladies tried to kind a squad to hitch the then male-only junior Up Helly Aa. That revolt was rapidly quashed.

The next yr Dr Susan Bowie, the GP for Hillswick in north-west Shetland, crashed the social gathering by becoming a member of one squad carrying a white swimsuit, pink shirt and tie. Bowie was ultimately rumbled early the next morning, however she mentioned: “The world didn’t finish. I had a wonderful time.” The squad which allowed her in was, nevertheless, disciplined.

The choice to confess girls stays divisive. “Nearly all of Lerwick girls need it to stay the identical … it’s custom, isn’t it?” mentioned one lady wearing Celtic motif knitwear with the design of this yr’s jarl squad’s capes, who wished to stay nameless.

One other two native girls, once more carrying comparable woollen hats and scarves, had been sanguine concerning the admission of ladies. “I don’t thoughts, to be sincere,” mentioned one. “I favor the custom [of men-only], however I’m not likely bothered,” mentioned her companion. For Manson, that exhibits the query is settled.