Shetland Islands culture · Culture in Shetland Islands
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Culture in Shetland Islands
Culture in Shetland Islands
Shetland has a diverse and thriving culture all of its own, which has been enhanced by isolation from the rest of Scotland. Traditional crafts and passtimes include:-
Music - The traditional music, especially fiddle music of Shetland is justifiably famous ]. The fiddle dates back to around 1700 and has been played in the islands ever since, with influences from Scandanavia and Scotland. In spite of the risk that it would be overwhelmed by modern music, it has more than stood its ground and all young people have the opportunity to learn to play at school. Traditional music can be heard live in venues all over the islands, and there is a fiddle festival held every year in early October .
Knitting - The local 'Shetland Sheep' provide fine, multi-coloured wool which is knitted locally into a variety of garments. The 'Fair Isle' pattern is particularly famous, and there is a legend (apparently just that), that knitting this was taught to the Fair Islanders by Spanish sailors shipwrecked from the Armada. Fair Isle pattern has been exploited all over the world (there is an amusing exhibit in the Shetland museum; a page from an American magazine advertising 'Real English Shetland knitware'), but a visit to Shetland is the opportunity to buy some of the real thing. There are many places selling knitware in the islands, with an obvious concentration in Lerwick. Particularly fine (though extremely expensive), is patterned knitwear created straight from the undyed natural colours of the sheep. Beautiful knitted lace is also created and Unst is particularly renowned for this.
Boat Building - Traditional Shetland sixareens and yoals are still occasionally made in the islands
Storytelling - Shetland stories often involve traditional folklore with Nordic influence. Prominent are 'trow' or nocturnal faerie folk who live in mounds and often steal human musicians away to play for them, and nuggles (malign water horses who seek to drown the unwary). In the Shetland Museum in Lerwick you can enter a 'reproduction' of a trow mound.
Up Helly Aa - This is Europe's largest and most famous fire festival. It always takes place on the last Tuesday in January, and the next day is a public holiday (reputedly known as 'Sick-Bag Wednesday') to allow for recovery. Over the year the 'Guizer Jarl' or Viking Chief and his squad meticulously prepare costumes, weapons and a Viking Galley. The Jarl may have been with the squad as long as 20 years before he gets the opporutnity to take the lead part. The Jarl Squad, together with around 45 other squads tour around local halls, performing acts, dancing and (of course) drinking. There is a torchlight procession of nearly 1000 participants and then the Galley is ceremoniously burned. Tickets to the halls are by invitation only, but public tickets are available for the Town Hall . Note that although the Lerwick festival is the largest and most famous, many other fire festivals are held across the islands, and in most of these, unlike Lerwick, women may appear as Guizers.
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Shetland Islands Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.