Hobby Horse of Padstow

The 'Obby 'Oss of Padstow is one of the oldest and most vigorous surviving folk customs in Britain — a May Day rite that fills the Cornish harbour town each first of May with music, greenery and dense, singing crowds. From dawn the streets ring with the 'Morning Song', and two great hobby horses — the 'Old' 'Oss and the 'Blue Ribbon' 'Oss — caper through the town: fearsome black hooped figures with snapping masks and tar-black skirts, each led by a costumed 'Teaser' and pursued by accordions, drums and singers.

Through the day the 'Oss periodically 'dies', sinking to the ground as the song turns mournful, then springs up again — an unmistakable echo of older fertility and rebirth ritual welcoming the summer. Though its documented record runs only to the early nineteenth century, the custom is widely believed to be far older, a survival of pre-Christian May celebration. Padstow guards it fiercely as its own, and the 'Obby 'Oss remains among the most atmospheric and genuinely living pieces of calendar folklore in the country.