ˈUphaliday, Up-Helly-ˈAa Sc. Obs. exc. Shetland dial.
Also 5–6 vphaly (6 -ye) da(y), 6 ouphalliday, uphaldy; 6 vphelly, 9 uphellie, Shetland uphelya, -hellia (day), -helly-a, 20 Up-Helly-A'.
[f. up adv.2 12 a (see quot. 1884) + haliday holiday. Also with omission of -day in uphelly even, night, and in mod. Shetl. forms, in which the final -a may stand for all adj.]
1. a. The festival of the Epiphany (Jan. 6, Twelfth-day), as the end of the Christmas holidays.
In quot. 1884 the reckoning is by a combination of Old and New Style.
| 1478 Acta Dom. Conc. (1839) 20/1 Þe lordis continewis þe mater to þe morne efter vphalyday nixt tocum. 1501 Acc. Ld. High. Treas. Scot. II. 77 The vj day of Januar, Uphalyday, to the Kingis offerand, thre Franch crounes. 1535 Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1871) II. 71 Evin sang in the haly dayes of Yule, New Yeir day, and Vphaly day. 1588 A. King in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.) 175 Vphaliday when Christ vas reueled first to the gentiles. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj., Burrow Lawes 135 Ane decreit given..vpon Mononday, after Vphaliday. 1884 Gd. Words 747 Uphelya, the twenty-fourth day after Yule, and that on which the Holy or holidays are supposed to be ‘up’. |
b. So Uphalimass in the same sense.
| 1532 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scotl. VI. 39 For the doune putting of thare bassyngis at New Ȝear Daye, Uphalymes and Pasche. 1556 Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1871) II. 260 The festuall dayis of Yule, New-yeir-mes, and Vphellymes. |
c. Up-Helly-Aa (ˌʌphɛlɪˈɑː). (A revival of) a traditional midwinter fire-festival held at Lerwick in the Shetland Islands (see quots.).
| 1872 Saturday Herald & Shetland Gaz. (Kirkwall) 10 Feb. 1/3 Monday night was what is here [sc. in Lerwick] called ‘Up-haly a’, and the youths here indulged in their savage sports of tar-barrel burning. 1901 Shetland News 5 Jan., The principal Festival of the season to Lerwegians, namely ‘Up-helly A’,..is now celebrated with..Norse galleys, torch-light processions, and guizing galore. 1934 W. Moffat Shetland 129 Up-Helly-Aa night was the twenty-fourth night of the Helli or Holy Days, and that period of feasting, drinking, singing and rejoicing concluded with a great flare-up on Up-Helly-Aa night. 1948 C. E. Mitchell Up-Helly-Aa 2 Up-Helly-Aa is the final day of the Jola B{obar}d or Yule Period which commenced on the fifth day of January, old style, and ended twenty⁓four days later in a climax of revelry. 1955 Shetland Times 28 Jan., When a man is elected to the Up-Helly-A' Committee he can expect to become Guizer Jarl according to his seniority. 1972 Guardian 15 Jan. 14/5 The fire festival of Up-Helly-A in the Shetlands, which celebrates the passing of midwinter with..torchlight processions..and a lifesize longboat that goes up in flames. |
2. uphali(day) even, the eve of the Epiphany; uphaly night, the night of Jan. 6.
| 1506 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. III. 178 The fift day [of January], Uphaldy evin, to the men that brocht the sensouris. 1582 Rec. Elgin (1903) I. 164 That scho in na times to cum sall ring bessingis, brassin nor irn morteris,..within this burgh upon Vphelly ewin. 1881 S. R. Macphail Relig. Ho. Pluscardyn xix. 155 The thirteenth night o' Eel [= Yule] was called ‘uphellie nicht’. |