Up Helly Aa

In January in the Shetland Islands, daylight lasts only a few hours. At the darkest time of the year, nearly a thousand men and women in Viking helmets and carrying flaming torches march through Lerwick, then throw the torches into a Viking galley they built themselves and watch it burn to a sea of fire under the night sky. It is one of Europe's most spectacular fire festivals and the pride of Britain's northernmost islands.