Padstow Obby Oss

The Rev. Kinsmen says "Obby Oss is a celebration that is totally spontaneous," he says. "It's like summer is bursting into life. The whole community is vibrant and very much alive."

Just when the custom of Obby Oss started is shrouded in the mists of time. Some say it dates back thousands of years to the rituals of celebrating the coming of summer and the Feast of Beltane this was the time of the first planting of the crops and the the feast was very much about the awakening of the earth after its winters rest. The cavorting and prancing of the horse is symbolic of this as can be seen in this little film which was filmed on a mobile phone and placed on YouTube by S. Bettridge.

Unite and unite and let us all unite
For summer is a-come unto day
And wither we are going, we will all unite
In the merry morning of May

With a merry ring and
Now the joyful spring
O give us a cup of ale
And the merrier we will sing

The young men of Padstow,
They might if they would
They might have built a ship
And gilded it all in gold

The young women of Padstow,
They might if they would
They might have built a garland
Of the white rose and the red

Where are those young men
That now here should dance?
For some they are in England
And some they are in France

O where is St. George?
O where is he o ?
He's out in his longboat
All on the salt sea-o
Up flies the kite
Down falls the lark-o
And Ursula Birdhood
She had an old ewe
And she died in her own park-o

With a merry ring
And now the joyful spring
So happy are those little birds

For summer is a-come unto day
And the merrier we will sing

In the merry morning of May