News / Museum gets ready for guizers
SHETLAND Museum and Archives is gearing itself up to the annual Up Helly Aa fire festival next Tuesday with a string of workshops, exhibitions, talks and special menus.
Hundreds of visitors flock to the islands for the unique event where a thousand torch-bearing guizers march through the streets of Lerwick behind a Viking galley, which they burn to the ground before revelling the night away around the town’s public halls.
This weekend children can paint their own Up Helly Aa shield on both Saturday and Sunday, while on Wednesday’s public holiday they can attend the popular workshop on Thor’s hammer.
A display of Up Helly Aa memorabilia from the private collection of guizer Chris Sim will be on display until 19 February, while from Saturday until Wednesday there will be a daily talk on the origins of the fire festival.
Meanwhile the museum’s Hay’s Dock Café is adding a range of special meals from Monday to Wednesday, including pot roasted venison, reestit mutton soup and bannocks.
The main event though will come on Up Helly Aa day itself when Guizer Jarl Rae Simpson and his squad will visit the museum and archives at 3.30pm.
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