Jack-in-the-Green and Obby Oss welcome the arrival of summer

On Sunday, 4th May, the town of Chagford witnessed a bizarre procession. A man covered from head to foot in green foliage and a living puppet featuring a decorative horse’s skull danced along the streets. The event was conjured up by ‘Celebrating the Earth’, a cross-community, cross-generational, cross-faith group of committed local people who organise imaginative nature-themed events all year round to honour and mark the changing seasons.

Terri Windling, one of the organising team says: "With tales and tunes and folklore and frolics, our community came together once again to celebrate the land we live on, to welcome the spirit of Summer, and to partake of the ‘luck of the May’ gifted to all by the antics of the Jack and Obby Oss.

“Each year the Jack-in-the-Green Procession starts quietly with a blessing of the Jack and Obby Oss in Chagford Church. These wild and wayward creatures are then coaxed out of the church with music and drums. They dance up New Street - making merry mischief along the way, and blessing all who pass - until they reach the gathering crowd at Ore Hill gate. Then they lead us over the hill to the apple trees, where the blessing ceremony takes place.”