For the first time in nearly a century and a half, females of all ages joined the main group of Shetland's Up Helly Aa fire festival, staged this week in Lerwick.
Held on the last Tuesday of January, Up Helly Aa ("Up Holy All") is the largest Viking festival on the islands, located halfway between Scotland and Norway.
It features a torchlit procession through the town and the dramatic burning of a replica Viking galley.
The inclusion of women in this year's procession marks an important step for gender equality, stemming from a campaign that began in the 1980s.
Norse rule in the Shetland Islands until the 15th century has left a lasting legacy, with Viking influences evident in the islands' architecture, folklore, and community celebrations. Photo: Andrew J Shearer / Shutterstock
The Shetland Islands and their Nordic links
Belonging to the Norwegians until 1468, the islands have a notably long history of connection with their Nordic neighbors compared to other regions in the British Isles.
In the late 1800s, a group of young locals decided to adapt their traditional annual activity of tar barrelling, when inebriated menfolk would drag flaming barrels through the town on sleds.
Considered a danger to the public, it was abolished, torches replacing barrels, at the same time as there was a resurgence of interest in Norse history.
A Norwegian speaker and Lerwick-born writer, Haldane Burgess, published his most famous work, The Viking Path, in 1894, a novel set at the time when Christianity first came to the Shetland Islands.
Burgess was one of the prime movers behind the revived event, also writing the Up Helly Aa song that accompanies the ceremony every January.
Each January, the Up Helly Aa festival brings Shetland's Norse history to life through a series of events including torchlit marches and the symbolic burning of a Viking ship replica. Photo: Andrew J Shearer / Shutterstock
What is Up Helly Aa?
As can be gleaned from a visit to the Shetland Museum and Archives in Lerwick, each main community across the islands holds its own version of Up Helly Aa. Lerwick's is the biggest and most extravagant.
Costumed participants, known as guizers, march through the town carrying torches, which they use to burn down a replica of a Viking longship.
The chief guizer, or Jarl, must have served 16 years on the event committee before being elected for the first and only time in his life.
This year's Guizer Jarl was Richard Moar, and alongside him marched his 16-year-old daughter Jenna.
Participants must have been local residents for at least five years, even though many visitors from around the world express interest in participating every January.
There's also a junior procession involving 100-plus schoolchildren.
Preparations begin at the end of October, when those taking part give up several nights of their week to rehearse, ensuring the event runs smoothly.
Nowadays, many tourists flock to Lerwick for the event, filling hotels and guesthouses, while an increasing number of people line the chilly streets to watch the procession led by the replica longship.
The occasion is also a public holiday in Lerwick, allowing families to gather with no school or place of work to go to.
Everyone, guizers and spectators, makes their way down to the open location where the longship is parked and made ready for the big bonfire.
Participants throw their torches into the boat, which is soon engulfed in flames.
This provides the dramatic backdrop for everyone to sing the Norseman's Home, underlining local links with the Nordic countries.
This year's event also came months after near neighbors, the Orkney Islands, closer to mainland Scotland, debated whether they should change their constitution and move politically closer to Norway.
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