Padstow May Song

Tomorrow night the dancers will be gathering at the Golden Lion Inn from midnight to carry out the 200 year old tradition of the Obby Oss in Padstow, Cornwall:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Obby_'Oss_festival

I have included just a few verses of the version that appears in 'The West Country Garland", in 1875.

The footage is from the BBC Archive, published in 1951:
https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/992397136636579841

https://archive.org/details/westcountrygarl00unkngoog
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The writer in this 1964 English Folk dancing book, Douglas Kennedy, claims to have seen the May Day procession in 1912 with Cecil Sharp:
https://archive.org/details/englishfolkdanci0000unse

I'm not sure if this is genuine pagan history still living, or possibly a recent tradition embellished for the benefit of folk academics and tourists. Watching the teaser and the Oss, I tend to believe it is the first.

#Padstow #MaydDay #ObbyOss #Pagan #Cornwall