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| Padstow 'Obby Oss |
This post was written in 2005 to
be published in The
Screaming Mandrake - A
Victorian magazine publication of the Pagan Alliance (Issue 3, Spring 2005). It
was also posted on the Mount Franklin Beltane blog in March 2011.
I
have decided to make a hobby horse, and I want to make it in time for the Mt
Franklin Beltane Gathering of October 2005. That gives me a goal and time
limit.
I recall the days of my youth, when a hobby horse was
plastic or stuffed vinyl horse head on a stick, with reins and wheels. Little
did I know then, that this was a major festival item for many British and
European celebrations, and that often they were large and highly decorated,
sometimes appearing during the longest summer days or the shortest winter days
and often ‘dying’ at the end of the festival, only to wait to be revived in a
years’ time.
Today the most popular hobby horse festival I know, is the
May Day festivities of Padstow, on coastal Cornwall, where they have a black
hobby horse called the ‘Oss’. I’m calling mine the ‘Oss’ these days.
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| The head of my 'Oss |
February 2005 – We receive a gift of a wicker horse
head from a friend Paul. The head has no ears and has marble eyes, although one
eye has been pulled out and the wicker eye socket damaged. It already has a red
vinyl bridal.
I
plan to do some research to find out about these hobby horses. The books on my
shelf tell of fantastic legends and customs of the horse in fertility festivals
and its importance in Celtic and other mythologies. Alexei Kondratiev's book The Apple Branch – A path to Celtic Ritual
has fine information about the Mari
Llwyd and the darker seasons festivals.
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| Mari Llwyd |
June
– I go to the National Celtic Festival in Portarlington on long weekend June,
with my old super 8 camera to catch footage of the Padstow Obby Oss that is
rumoured to be there. We see no sign of it. My friends Wendy and Mark and I
often ask organisers, where is the Oss? Most of them have no idea what an Oss
is. We are horrified.
Eventually
we speak to someone who knows about it and they send us to speak to the Cornish
Society in one of the main tents. They show us a picture of this Oss. It is
identical to the Padstow one, only a little smaller, and they tell us it might
appear on Monday morning. We sink in disappointment. We tell the Society that
we are going to make an Oss, not quite the same as the Padstow one though. They
get very excited, and give us a business card and say ‘tell us when it’s done,
bring it to our meeting!’
‘The
most remarkable surviving May Day celebrations are probably those held in the
Cornish harbour town of Padstow. At the end of April a maypole is set up and
greenery and flags decorated through town…The main attraction is the Obby Oss,
a heavy constructions built around a 6 foot diameter hoop, a man who’s head is
covered by a grotesque mask resembling a bishops mitre in shape. The horse
performs a swaying, dipping dance, egged on by its teaser who wields a
decorated club. The music dies and the oss sinks to the ground. A farewell song
is sung to the oss and it is to be revived the next May Day.’
- ‘Rites and Riots’
‘The ceremony is believed to be
based on a Pre-Christian Spring fertility rite with the dying oss representing
the passing of the old year.’
- Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain
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| The Minehead Hobby Horse |
July
and Aug – Designs of the oss are being drawn up. I decide on a metal ring.
Circle or oval? I love the Oss represented in ‘The Wicker man’ film. I ask our
blacksmith friend Owen to make a ring. I decide on a size, but think it may be
too big. I wanted a circle but am not fussed if its an oval. And maybe a ring
for the head to sit on.
Sept
– I buy a large marble and find it is a little bigger than the eye already
there. I still add it to the head and put air-drying clay over the eyelid. I
put an identical layer of clay over the other eye to have matching eyelids.
Then I paint it gold. It already seems happier with 2 eyes.
I begin to decorate the head. I add a red diamond to his
nose, with a gold leafed diamond in the middle of that. I tie all the left over
ribbons I had to the red bridal, and added small mirror squares to the bridal
too. I am used to seeing it without ears. I planned to add leather ears, but
have now decided against it. I add pink and purple raffia to thicken the hair
of the horse. Looks like a carnival horse.
I want a name for it. I decide to call the Oss ‘Dobbin’
because of my Yorkshire background.
A Hobby Horse of Knaresborough,
in North Yorkshire, makes his appearance during the Plough Monday Ceremony.
Every January, they pull the plough up the High street in a parade. The horses
name is Dobbin. Dobbin is built around the skull of a real horse, placed on a
stick with a cloak around it.
‘The wooden horse is found as a traditional animal all over
the country. Where the (pantomime) horse consists of a human under the costume,
it is without speech. Where it is a hobby horse with a human rider, the human
is a kind of fool and can relate verbally to the audience…Dobbin’s behaviour is
often independent from his rider, John -
he is ‘calculatingly mischievous.’ He can dance a jig and play dead, but a pint
of beer or a kiss from a maiden will revive him…I have to be careful what
Dobbin does. His activities must always add to the dance and not detract from
it. At the same time, he can be used to cover up any of the dancers mistakes.’
- Dalesman Magazine
‘Looking at shape shifting
anthropomorphic creatures of Folklore and Mythology, the well known ‘each
uisage’ of Scotland ‘The water horse’ or ‘water kelpie’ was well known for
guarding stretches of water, like lochs and rivers, by killing a certain
traveller who mounted the horse, intended for faster travels. It is believed
that a Yorkshire dialect term for these creatures was dobbin or dobbie, which
may have used the Celtic dhu (‘black’) as its first element.’
- ‘Twilight of the Celtic Gods’
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| The flags I added to the Oss |
I am
putting flags around the sides, not unlike the Oss in ‘The Wicker Man’. But
instead designs of paint, embroidery or material are going to be added to each
one – and I will give these flags to friends to all contribute something. I am
using beautiful brocade colour samples I got for free from a curtain store. I
cut and sew all the flags to identical sizes. I began to paint 4 flags,
beginning with the Isle of Man flag, the ‘triskelion’, with the 3 legs, then I
paint a flying raven, a St Andrews flag, and an ivy vine. I send some pre-sewn
flags to friends to begin their designs.
When
the ring eventually showed up, I was amazed at its weight, and began to worry.
But decided to keep going with it. It was getting close to October and Owen had
been working hard and very dedicated. There is a ring at the front for its head
to sit on, and this makes the front heavier. I will have to add a
counter-weight at the back; luckily Owen added hooks at the back to tie things
to.
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The Abbots Bromley Hobby Horse,
now hangs in the Church and
has been replaced by a new Horse |
What
would I wear with the oss? I buy green material and make a tunic and cover this
tunic with leaves for a bogie/fool outfit, an accompaniment for the horse, I
want follow it with bells, a mask, and a jesters’ hat.
Oct
– To make a skirt, I want green material. Terri brings around a variety of left
over green material she has accumulated. We cut up squares and rectangles and
sew them together making the width of the skirt 6 metres, a little bit over the
circumference of the ring. It became a patchwork skirt that had a length of
under a metre. It seemed like it took no time at all.
My
friend Rose comes around and we bind the ring with scrap panne velvet to soften
its edges. Then we measure a calico ‘petticoat’ to go underneath the cover. I
cut out the calico and sewed another strip of calico to that and then I had to
get another person to hold the ring as I sewed the calico to it. We also cut
out the brocade that I wanted the oss to wear – a red and gold colour. I pin
the green skirt to the brocade, gathering it every now and then. It is working!
I sew the skirt to the brocade.
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| Oss with its green patchwork skirt |
Painted
flags are arriving in the mail from friends – one with a corn dolly attached,
one with a boat scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, and one of the Celtic Cross
symbol, representing the six symbols from Susan Coopers books, ‘The Dark is
Rising Sequence’. I attach bells to the bottom of each flag. One flag was saved
for listing the makers of the oss and the names of those who contributed to it,
so all could see how much effort was put in.
I
have acquired spare braid to attach the flags to. They all fit
on the right length of braid and then I pin them into position. Then I sew the
flags on, and then eventually sew the flags and braid onto the edge of the
skirt.
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The Banbury Hobby Horse Festival - Hobby Horses come
in all styles and sizes, dragon-like, donkey-like, cow-like. |
I
sew on the head to the smaller ring and add a jester collar of triangles. I make a tail out of scrap material – mostly
satin scraps, which will fray but I don’t mind it looking messy. I cut a hole
into the brocade at the tail end of the oss and pushed through strips to tie to
the hook under the calico. For more counter-weight, I added by the tail, my two
garden ornament-hanging gargoyles, the Belcher and the Friar, replicas of the
outer wall gargoyles of the Brasenose College in Oxford.
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Brasenose gargoyles were counterweights - they did
not really work |
The
oss is virtually done, except for additional pieces of decoration and the
straps that are to hold the oss up on the shoulders of the rider. I buy enough
length for straps and when Terri and I attached it, it does not look very
strong. We prepare ourselves for possible breakage. However, this Beltane
gathering was only one weekend, if we are not happy with anything, we can make
it better later on. I find a colour
picture of the Mari Llwyd, a midwinter Welsh hobby horse with a real horse
skull, and I add it to an oval frame to attach to the skirt. It looked very feminine, yet very eerie, kind of my Obby Oss' counterpart!
‘It
was the skeleton of a giant horse, staring with the blind eye-sockets of a
skull running and leaping and prancing of legs on bone…faster than any living
horse it galloped and without any sound…the creature was playing with them… the
leering skull thrust out, the jaws open wide, it charged at them in terrible
silence...Bran was sitting up ‘The Mari Llwyd!’ he whispered ‘The Mari Llwyd!’
he was staring at the thing as if bewitched.’
- ‘The Silver on the Tree’
‘The best known skull and pole
type of hobby-horse, with glass bottle bottoms for eyes, and a pair of old
gloves for ears is the Mari Lwyd, the famous horse of South Wales. He is
beautifully decked out with ribbon and horse-bells and appears at midwinter,
rearing and plunging in the dark street, while the party accompanying him holds
a singing contest with every house they visit…the Mari Lwyd is accompanied by a
Sergeant, a Merryman, and a Punch and Judy.’
- Man, Myth and Magic magazine
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| Version 1.0 of my Obby Oss |
Beltane
weekend – On the Saturday of Beltane, Linda asked if the horse could be in
ritual. I personally wanted it to be used around the maypole on Sunday, but was
prepared for Linda to ask this. Terri and I added shoulder pads to the straps
and added small decorations and toys to the skirt. I then had to gather people
for the jester/teasing job. I had my green tunic with leaves, jester hat and
ivy mask, Terri was Maid Marion, Hania, Elvanna, Wendy and Emily were jesters
and teaser maidens of their own kind, and Wendy’s brother Ash, was the
Man-Woman, complete with purple dress and make-up. Lorena led the procession
with her daughter Brielle, and they carried a ribboned wreath with bells on a
stick. And most important of all, Ryan Trahar was our masked Oss rider.
During
the ritual the oss was called in. We all went as teasers and jesters, but made
sure that Ryan was alright with his straps. It all happened so quickly, and I
barely remember any of it, my main concern was Ryan and the Oss, but he
indicated when he was ready to leave. The overall reaction to the oss was
positive. Everyone loved him, I thought the colours worked extremely well
together and the painted flags added to the community effort.
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| Another from the Banbury Hobby Horse Festival |
Some
damage was done to the oss after the rite – such dramatic festival pieces should
expect a bit of battering – but I plan to make great changes to the oss in the
near future, so it will be ready for other festivals.
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| Version 2.0 of my Obby Oss (2006) |
One year later.......
In 2006, one year after the making of version 1.0 of Dobbin, I came back with new ideas. I had just spent our winter in England (their summer) and saw all sorts of pagan festivals while I was there, especially the Pagan Pride March in London (held on my birthday!) which had drummers, bogies, Giants, and a Jack-in-the-Green. Such inspiration!
The Oss was far too heavy with his metal ring so we abandoned it for a cane ring. Terri made a fish shaped cane frame which was much lighter, and I took the skirt off the oss. I cut the red and gold brocade to shape and re-gathered the skirt, sewing it back on. As it was a smaller Oss, I chose the best flags to leave onto the braid and sewed that on. I then attached the head with wire this time, and re-attached the tail. All of it was much the same, not as much work was done to this one. The straps were better and the Oss was overall lighter and bounced around a lot better than before.
At the 2006 Mount Franklin Beltane, we all celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the gathering. There were well over one dozen ritualists this year, as we performed a small play and sang a song during ritual. Before the circle was opened, the Oss rider ran around the circle, and our friend Steve was 'Punch' – who had two halves of coconuts and followed the rider – but the rider, in his nervousness, ran too fast and the punch could not keep up!! Dobbin certainly was better this year, lighter and easier to handle.
Dobbin has been used since 2006 at Beltane, but not every year. He quite often comes to Beltane to enjoy the fun, but not always get used. With luck, he will be around for a very long time!!
References
Pegg, Bob. Rites and Riots,
Blandford Press, 1981
Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain,
Readers’ Digest Assoc. London.
2nd Ed, 1977
Dalesman Magazine, May 2005
Roberts, Andy. & Clarke, David. Twilight
of the Celtic Gods, Blandford Press, 1996
Cooper, Susan. Silver on the
Tree, ‘Dark is Rising Sequence’ 1977
Man, Myth and Magic Magazines ‘Hobby-Horse,’ 1971
Three items: Black tatter dress, Kelpie horse head, hobby
horse. 
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