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Participants in the Up-Helly-Aa festival, wearing Viking costumes, stand in front of a burning 30-foot longship in central Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, Tuesday Jan. 25, 2000. 928 marchers carrying burning torches walked with the longship to a field in the centre of Lerwick where the longship was burnt. The Norsemen left a very strong influence on the ways and customs of the people of the Shetland Islands and Norse festivals were absorbed into the culture of the islanders. With the coming of Christianity, the Yule festival became Christmas and the 24th night after Christmas, the ending of the holidays, was called Uphalliday (later to become Up-Helly-Aa). The Norsemen, originally pagans, celebrated the end of the Christian period with feasting, drinking and bonfires. At the end of the 19th century Up-Helly-Aa, which is not a festival for tourists but for the people of Lerwick became established on the last Tuesday in January. (AP Photo/Christine Nesbitt)…I…FEA