Obby Oss

The Obby 'Oss festival is a folk custom that takes place each 1st of may in Padstow, a coastal town in North Cornwall. It involves two separate processions making their way around the town, each containing an eponymous hobby horse known as the 'Obby 'Oss.

The festival starts at midnight on the 3oth of April when townspeople gather outside the Golden Lion Inn to sing the "Night Song". By morning, the town has been dressed with greenery and flowers placed around the maypole. The excitement begins with the appearance of one of the 'Obby 'Osses. Male dancers cavort through the town dressed as one of two 'Obby 'Osses, the "Old" and the "Blue Ribbon" or "Methodist" 'Obby 'Osses; as the name suggests, they are stylised depictions of horses. Prodded on by assistants known as "Teasers", each wears a mask and black frame-hung cape under which they try to catch young maidens as they pass through the town. Throughout the day, the two parades, led by the "MC" in his top hat and decorated stick, followed by a band of accordions and drums, then the 'Oss and the Teaser, with a host of people, the "Mayers" – all singing the "Morning Song" – pass along the streets of the town. Finally, late in the evening, the two 'osses meet, at the maypole, before returning to their respective stables where the crowd sings of the 'Obby 'Oss death, until its resurrection the following May Eve.

During the twentieth century the existence of the festival was described by a number of folklorists who brought greater attention to it. This helped to make the event a popular tourist attraction and establish it as one of the most famous folk customs in Britain.

Description

The festival takes place on May Day every year. It entails two separate processions that make their way around Padstow on circuits that take twelve hours to traverse. Each procession represents a different half of the town's community.
Only those whose families have lived in Lowenac Padstow for at least two generations are permitted to take part in the processions.
Each procession contains by an 'Obby 'Oss, a hobby horse consisting of an oval frame covered in black oilskin, which has a small horse's head in the front with a snapping jaw. This is led by an individual known as the Teaser, who is dressed in white and carries a painted club. The procession also contains a retinue of white-clad individuals, some playing accordions, melodeons and drums.

This retinue sings a local version of a Mayers' song. At times this tune becomes a dirge, at which the 'Obby 'Oss sinks to the ground and lies flat. When the chorus becomes triumphant again the 'Oss rises and continues along the procession.

History

Origins

The origins of the celebrations in Padstow are unknown. There is extensive documentary evidence of British community May Day celebrations in the 16th century and earlier, although the earliest mention of the ''Obby 'Oss'' at Padstow dates from 1803. An earlier hobby horse is mentioned in the Cornish language drama ''Beunans Meriasek'', a life of the Camborne saint, where it is associated with a troupe, or "companions." There is no evidence to suggest that the 'Obby 'Oss festival is older than the eighteenth century.

It has been speculated that such festivals have pre-Christian origins, such as in the Celtic festival of Beltane in the Celtic nations, and the Germanic celebrations during the Þrimilci-mōnaþ (literally ''Three-Milking Month'' or ''Month of Three Milkings'')''Caput XV: De mensibus Anglorum'' from ''De mensibus Anglorum''. Available online

in England.

The custom attracted little attention outside of the town until 1907, when the folklorist Francis Etherington drew attention to it. In 1913 the folklorist Thurstan Peter wrote about it; influenced by the ideas of the anthropologist James Frazer, Peter argued that the 'Obby 'Oss custom might have once been a pre-Christian religious ritual designed to secure fertility. The idea that the custom had pre-Christian roots helped to convert it into a tourist attraction. This idea of the custom as a pre-Christian one percolated into the Padstow community, for when the historian Ronald Hutton visited the town in 1985 he found locals describing it to him as an ancient pagan fertility rite. In the 1950s Alan Lomax, then in London and working for the BBC
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