Viking fire festival continues ancient tradition

The World

The northernmost settlement in the UK celebrated “Up Helly Aa”, an annual fire festival with ancient origins. Last night, a thousand people, dressed as Vikings, marched through the town holding burning torches. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler tell how residents of the town of Lerwick, on the Shetland Islands in Scotland, turned out, as they have for decades, to watch the burning of a Viking-style rowing ship built especially for the occasion.

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