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'Obby 'Oss Day
On May Day in Padstow, Cornwall, a masked dancer in a black frame circles the town while the crowd sings, in a custom whose roots are unrecorded.
About 'Obby 'Oss Day
In the Cornish town of Padstow a figure called the 'Obby 'Oss, a dancer inside a hooped black costume and a mask, parades through the streets with a teaser who dances before it with a club. A second, blue-ribboned oss, the Peace 'Oss, takes a separate route, and the two meet at the quay. People sing the May Song, a call to summer, and the day is much anticipated by the town. The origin of the custom is not known, and the earliest written accounts are from the early nineteenth century. It is often described as a fertility rite, though that reading comes from later folklorists; locals regard it simply as their own tradition.
Also part of it, and being written: 'Obby 'Oss festival (The Padstow festival.), Hobby horse (The wider family of masked horse figures.), May Day (The date on which it falls.).
Written by the EveryJaadu desk with AI assistance. Background: "'Obby 'Oss festival" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family, and are described as belief and practice. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.