Up Helly Aa

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Up Helly Aa (/ˌʌp hɛli ˈɑː/ UP-hel-ee-AH;^[1][2] literally "Up Holy [Day] All") is a type of fire festival held annually from January to March in various communities in Shetland, Scotland, to mark the end of the Yule season. Each festival involves a torchlit procession by squads of costumed participants (known as guizers) that culminates in the burning of an imitation Viking galley. The largest festival held in Lerwick, Shetland's capital, involves a procession of up to a thousand guizers who march through the streets of Lerwick on the last Tuesday in January.^[3] The other rural festivals (known as the 'country' Up Helly Aas)^[4] see lower numbers of participants in accordance with their lower populations.