英シェトランド諸島のバイキング火祭り　女性の参加解禁

【エディンバラＡＦＰ＝時事】英スコットランド沖のシェトランド諸島ラーウィックで毎年１月に開催されるバイキングの火祭り「アップ・ヘリー・アー」に、来年から女性が参加できることになった。主催者が２２日、発表した。（写真はアップ・ヘリー・アーでたいまつを手に行進する参加者）
　アップ・ヘリー・アーはクリスマスシーズンの終わりを飾る祝祭で、１８８１年に始まった。バイキングの格好をした約１０００人の男性が町を練り歩き、バイキングの帆船の復元模型にたいまつで火を放つと祭りは最高潮を迎える。伝統的なシェトランド諸島の踊りや大量に酒が消費されることでも知られ、観光客に人気のイベントだ。
　たいまつを掲げた行進には、これまで男性しか参加が認められていなかったが、ラーウィックの実行委員会は、女人禁制を解除する時が来たと発表。「来年１月３１日の祭りは今までと次元の異なるものとなるが、本質と精神は変わらない」と表明した。
　参加資格をシェトランド諸島に５年以上継続して住んでいる１６歳以上と定めた規定に変更はない。
　シェトランド諸島の他の地域では、２０１５年からアップ・ヘリー・アーへの女性参加を認めている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/06/23-17:38）

Women will be allowed to take part in the main Viking-inspired torchlight procession on the remote Scottish island of Shetland for the first time next year, organisers said on Wednesday.
The committee in charge of the Up Helly Aa festival, which commemorates the end of the Christmas season, said that it was time to lift restrictions on women taking part in the traditionally male-only procession.
The decision means the festival in Lerwick on Tuesday January 31, 2023 will have a different dimension to it, but we have no doubt that its essence and spirit will remain the same, committee secretary Robert Geddes said.
The event, which is popular among tourists, traditionally involved around 1,000 male participants known as guizers in Viking dress, dividing into squads to parade through the town.
The walk is led by the Guizer Jarl or chief guizer, and culminates in the participants using their flaming torches to set ablaze a replica Viking longship.
The modern event, first held in 1881, is famous for its festive parties which often involve traditional Shetland dancing and copious alcohol consumption.
Rural Up Helly Aa processions on Shetland, which lies in the middle of the North Sea some 400 miles (640 kilometres) from Edinburgh, started allowing women to take part in 2015.
But the Lerwick committee stood firmly against allowing female participants to get involved in celebrating the island's Norse heritage.
We felt that it was time to give squads a choice over their guizers, including allowing female participation, Geddes said.
The other criteria for participation -- that guizers be older than 16 and have lived in Shetland continuously for five years -- remains the same for the event, which has not been held since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.