UP HELLY AA 2025 & CLIMATE CHANGE

Mr. Tom Morton’s commentary that accompanies the live streaming of the Up Helly Aa procession has become as much an anticipated part of the iconic occasion as the viewing of the event itself. Maybe this repetition is such that some cliché phrases have assumed a familiar role in the coverage, left to be criticised by a pedant. That UHA is ‘the largest fire festival in Europe,’ could once have been true, but while Shetland might still like to be a part of Europe, Britain has spent much time, effort, money, and heartache on breaking away from its neighbour. Perhaps the claim needs to be modified to adjust to the times, a thought that leaves one pondering another quirky issue of our era that might seek to impose other variations on the celebration.

One does wonder if environmental and health matters that seem to be having their impact on just about everything else in life today with the ‘climate change’ mantra, might eventually have an impact on the Up Helly Aa. Burning tons of wood, gallons of paraffin, and whatever else might be in the galley, works well as a fiery spectacle, but it appears somewhat inappropriate with the visuals also showing the polluting smoke, while the commentary boasts of the smell as lasting for hours, but being enjoyably memorable, all without any apparent concerns, when similar circumstances elsewhere, such as petrol sniffing and poor air quality, are challenged to change.

Perhaps the occasion is best understood beyond the intrigues of the day, to become acceptable by being likened to the explosive immediacy of fireworks, an enjoyably transient event that, in this context, is rooted in the necessities of a rich tradition that comes as an annual re-enactment.

When so much in our times is being discarded in favour of ‘new thinking; going forward; aimless progress,’ the maintenance of tradition becomes increasingly important, even if the hyperbole might be questioned, and other issues are queried. The reverberations of this event throughout Shetland and the world far outweigh any other impact one might devise for this yearly detonation that lasts about an hour, the time it takes the world to make nearly six and a half thousand new vehicles, EVs and otherwise, that require materials, effort, and energy, and clutter our towns and cities with an ever-increasing and lasting nuisance, hour after hour.