Up-Helly-Aa

British

/ ˌʌpˈhɛlɪɑː /

noun

a midwinter festival held in January in Shetland; originally a fire festival, but now a celebration of Shetland's Norse heritage, involving the ceremonial burning of a newly built Viking ship

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Up-Helly-Aa

from _up (in the sense: finished) + haliday a Scottish form of _holiday

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In 1956 children were invited to join the event to prepare them to participate in the main Up-Helly-Aa fire festival when they're older.

From Children's BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023