The Farewell song came back from WW1 with the young men and it sounds like a Victorian Parlour Ballad. The rest goes back into the mists of antiquity and is reputed to be a pre-christian death and resurrection/fertility rite.
These festivals used to be held all over Britain (and Europe) but gradually died out with the growth of "modern civilisation" and the help of two world wars.
Padstow's Mayday festivities have never had a break, even when the men were away at war, and today they're bigger than ever, with ex-pats and tourists coming from miles around - some even from overseas.
The Blue Oss was the Temperance Oss and there's also a Red Oss which used to be the boozy faction but they're much the same these days although there is a (mock) rivalry betwee the two. There are also children's osses and these are the first ones out on Mayday.
Like many of these festivals, Padstow's Mayday celebrations exist on several levels - first, it's a great excuse for a booze-up and it brings in the tourists, but it includes sympathetic magic folk-lore, with the oss (a stallion) chasing the girls and there's a rain charm there too. There's also a lot of obscure stuff that can be seen in the words of the songs, like who was Aunt Ursula Birdhood with the old ewe? Is this sexual imagery or just an old lady?
Both the Night song and the Day song have the same tune, except when you get to the Saint George bit - that is a small part of another song that seems to have been abandoned during the last century or so.
The tunes are not particularly inspiring until you find yourself in the middle of that crowd, when you spend the whole day following the oss around the streets and then late at night everyone starts singing 'Farewell, farewell, my own true love' and all the old men are in tears and everyone is exhausted!
You just have to be there!
Oss Oss!
Robyn