Watch: Hundreds carry flaming torches as Shetland celebrates Viking festival
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Your support makes all the difference.Watch as hundreds of people carry flaming torches through Shetland to celebrate the Up Helly Aa festival on Tuesday, 30 January.
More than 1,000 torches were lit as two processions, one in the morning and a second in the evening, took place in Lerwick.
The Viking festival began in the 1880s, celebrating the island's Norse heritage.
Communities come together to celebrate Shetland's history, taking part in a night of "guizing" (dressing up), a fire-lit procession, and playing traditional music.
This year it has embraced female participants for the first time - women and girls have been allowed to join the Jarl Squad and lead the torchlight procession for the first time.
The organisation is run by a 17-strong voluntary committee, each selected by the guizers (costumed participants), with one new member elected each year.
Jenna Moar, 16, who is one of the first female participants of this year’s Jarl Squad, is the daughter ofchief jarl Richard Moar, 47.
Guizer Jarl Mr Moar has been involved in the festival since 1990.
Fireworks were set off to signal the lighting of torches.
An imitation Viking boat, along with Guizer Jarl’s squad and a brass band, led a procession.
Forty-six other squads in fancy dress were behind them.
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