May Day Celebrations Will Soon Be Here,

if you are lucky enough,  

to be in Padstow, Cornwall, UK, the townsfolk have a particular way of celebrating May Day, photograph by SGBailey, it begins at midnight on May first, when the villagers erect a May Pole and sing to awaken the Hobby Horse, or 'Obby 'Oss in the local dialect, in the morning, the ‘Obby ‘Oss emerges. It consists of a large round platform supporting a black apron. The man who carries the beast puts his head through a whole at the centre of the structure. He wears a mask with a tall pointed cap, a menacing otherworldly image. At one end of the platform is a tail and at the other, a stylized head with snapping jaws. Simpson and Roud have noted that, ‘by no stretch of the imagination does it look like a horse’, the costume-wearing man cavorts along the streets, accompanied by a ‘teaser’ who leads the ‘Oss in a traditional dance to the sound of accordions and pounding drums as the participants sing the ‘Day Song’, the tradition has it that any woman caught beneath the apron will be married or pregnant within the next year. There is some speculation that the 'Obby 'Oss is more of a dragon than a horse, which harks back to the possible origins of the ritual, there's more to the Padstow May Day festivities,

than at first meets the eye, as you can see in the above video, I have to say that for myself there was something that reminded me of the film, The Wicker Man, the first version made in 1973 starring Edward Woodward, a great film by the way, so in a couple of days Happy May Day!