Up Helly Aa refers to a variety of fire festivals held annually in the Shetland Islands of Scotland, in the middle of winter to mark the end of the Yule season. The main festival in Lerwick involves a torchlight procession of up to a thousand Viking or like costumed guizers, led by the "Jarl" who march through the town, dragging a specially built replica of .Viking longship. After reaching a designated spot, a circle is formed around the ship, the Up Helly Aa song is sung, and the guizers throw their torches into the galley! <br><br> Contrary to popular belief, Vikings didn’t actually wear helmets with horns. In terms of archaeological evidence, only one surviving Viking helmet is known to exist— no horns! But during the 1840s, the costume designer for Wagner’s opera Der Ring des Nibelungen (1848), an epic music drama loosely based on Norse and German sagas, designed helmets with horns, and lo and behold—a new stereotype was created! #wheekwheekhellyaawheek