🌼 Happy May Day! 🌼

Good morning and happy first day of May!

All over the world there will be May day celebrations taking place today, and Cornwall is no different.

The most famous May day celebration in Cornwall is the Obby Oss festival which takes place in Padstow which is a costal town in north Cornwall.

Oss day celebrations start at midnight on the 30th of April. Locals gather by the Golden Lion Inn and sing the night song. They spend the night decorating the town and the May pole with plants and flowers. During the morning of May day the Obby Osses will appear which are two males from the town dressed in a hobby horse costume. Two marches then take place, they are circuits that take 12 hours to complete and both start at either side of the town. Following the hobby horses are locals playing instruments and singing the morning song. Only those who have lived in Lowenac (a place in Padstow) for at least two generations are allowed to take place in the marches but anyone can be a bystander. In the evening the two Osses meet at the May pole and then return to the stable. The townspeople will then sing of the Obby Osses death until they are resurrected on the following May eve. The earliest mention of the Obby Oss festival is from 1803, but there is documented evidence that the tradition might go back to the 16th century. To this day the Obby Oss festival is a very popular attraction with thousands of locals and tourists attending every year.

Find out more about Obby Oss and details about the festival here.

We wish you an amazing May!