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Part 5 Cornish Adventures in Paganism and Witchcraft Blog Beltane In Padstow
Part 5 Cornish Adventures in Paganism and Witchcraft Blog - Beltane In Padstow
Cornish Adventures in Paganism and Witchcraft Blog Part 5 – Pagan Beltane celebrations in Padstow!
Most of our pagan adventures you have read in earlier instalments were up on the high pagan and witchy moors of Penwith and Bodmin… After my witchcraft initiation on the Witch Rocks on Burns Down, we visited Padstow for a few days for their famous pagan May Day celebrations based on surviving pagan practices.
We stayed at a nice hotel, and after the obligatory investigation of local witchcraft Supplies stores and pagan stores, we settled into enjoy the pagan festivities.
The gorgeous Cornish coastal town of Padstow, is liminal spot between modern life and ancient pagan and witchcraft folklore, especially every spring where the whole town gets its pagan and witch on!. While some Brit towns have lost their pagan customs to the sands of time, Padstow remains a focal point of vibrant and colorful survivals of pagan-rooted ritual such as the 'Obby 'Oss, Maypole, and floral dance.
Celebrated on May Day (May 1st), the festival is of course born of Beltane, the Gaelic pagan fire festival marking the fertile half of the year from spring onwards. Historically, Beltane was a time of fire, fertility, sex, passion and the thinning of the veil between worlds. In Padstow, these themes are funneled into a joyous drunken pagan 12-hour procession of two "osses"—the Old 'Oss and the Blue Ribbon 'Oss. These are not mere costumes; they are towering, black-canvased figures with stylized shamanic pagan masks, danced through the streets to the pagan beat of drums!
The witchy symbolism with the 'Obby 'Oss is right upfront!. The "Oss" represents a spirit of nature and fertility. A central part of the ritual involves the Oss "dying"—sinking to the ground as the music turns into a somber dirge—only to be "resurrected" by the touch of a "Teaser" and a sudden explosion of joyous song. The oss will also try to capture young maidens! This cycle of death and rebirth mirrors the transition from the barren winter to the fertile summer months. Also, the traditional belief that a maidencaught under the Oss’s black cloak will of course be blessed with fertility shows the festivasls origins as a pagan ritul to bring forth prosperity for the community.
More pagan and witchy ritual of Beltane can be seen as the town is transformed into a ritual space. Houses are dressed for May- with branches of sycamore, oak and flowers—bringing the green man’s world into the stone streets. The witchy "Night Song," sung at midnight on April 30th, acts as an invocation and magick rite to welcome the summer, centering on themes of love and the merry morning of May. My favorite part was that the pubs stay open all night and folks get MASSIVLEY drunk the night before the obby oss – Beltane eve!!!
Padstow today is a modern fishing port, the 'Obby 'Oss maypole and decking the town in oak shows that its pagan heart continues to beat. It is not a tourist thing, but a true and deeply felt communal traditional rite. In the swirl of costumes, drums, red sashes, and the snapping jaws of the Oss, you can feel the ancient Celtic reverence for the turning of the seasons and the wild, pagan and witchcraft energy of the natural world.
The obby oiss processions end at the Maypole in the town square! The Maypole is of course one of the most recognizable symbols of paganism, representing a liminal bridge between the cold of winter of and the fertility of the spring! While practiced today as innocent schoolyard dances, its origins are rooted in the ancient festivals of Beltane and the pagan celebrations of the vernal equinox
Lets be honest…. the Maypole is a phallic symbol. “Deeper Hole, Bigger Pole” we all chant tounge in cheek as we mark the celebration of sex and fertility in this most basic witchcraft ritual of rebirth. In old Eurpe pagan traditions the pole reprents the male god form force of nature inserted into the earth goddesses’ womb of the earth. The pagan ritual for bringing a fresh-cut tree from the forest into the center of the village was a similar act to Hedgeriding – reintroducing the wild back into human settlement. This ensures the fertility of the livestock, the fields, and the people themselves and reminds folks of the old pagan ways.
The modern additions of ribbons – a Victorian embellishment - echoes the ancient theme of duality between the god and goddess (the dancers or the ribbons). As the dancers weave in and out, they create a web of life, symbolizing the union of the male and female, sex and the circle of life.
WE often think it would be fun to carry obby oss costumes in our witchcraft store online, but the very size would make it hard to ship these witchcraft supplies!
In the next part of our WITCHCRAFT BLOG we will explore Boscastle and Tintagel! Home to the Witchcraft Museum and home to many excellent witchcraft Supplies Store! Tintagel and it's Arthurian myths and many wicca supplies store! And Rocky Valley - full of neolithic pagan art!
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