Up Helly Aa from Upholiday, the lowland Scots word for Twelfth Day, and was brought by them to the Shetland Islands in the 19th century. There is a main guizer who is dubbed the "Jarl". There is a committee which a person must be part of for 15 years before one can be a jarl, and only one person is elected to this committee each year. The procession culminates in the torches being thrown into a replica Viking longship or galley. The event happens all over Shetland and is currently celebrated at ten locations – Scalloway, Lerwick, Nesting and Girlsta, Uyeasound, Northmavine, Bressay,
2017 Shetland Islands Council election 2017 Shetland Islands Council election Elections to Shetland Islands Council will be held on 4 May 2017 on the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. The election will be the third using seven wards created as a results of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, each ward electing three or four Councillors using the single transferable vote system a form of proportional representation, with 22 Councillors elected. With the Shetland South ward going uncontested, the SNP elected its first councillor in Shetland. Several members of the pro-Shetland Autonomy Wir Shetland group stood in the election; Ian Tinkler