The Hamefarin: Invented Rituals, History, and Cultural Links Between Scotland and New Zealand By Carole Cusack

https://www.academia.edu/107240303/The_Hamefarin_Invented_Rituals_History_and_Cultural_Links_Between_Scotland_and_New_Zealand The Scottish Government promotion of 2009 as the “Year of Homecoming” was both a tourist marketing exercise and an opportunity to connect with the worldwide Scottish diaspora. Australia and Aotearoa/ New Zealand have a sizeable population with ties to Scotland, and the tradition of homecoming specific to Shetland, Hamefarin (in the Norn dialect, first held in 1960) has a particular connection with the Southern Hemisphere. The Hamefarin is linked to Up-Helly-Aa, the boat-burning festival held in Shetland on the last Tuesday of January at twelve locations throughout the islands, with the capital Lerwick being the most important. The reigning Lerwick Guizer Jarl and his Jarl’s Squad began a new tradition of “reverse Hamefarin” in 1987 by visiting New Zealand, and this event inaugurated an ongoing “tradition” and a new touristic attraction in Aotearoa. This paper examines the creation of new traditions and the construction of imagined communities using the two Hamefarins as a case study. ...