Probably Ritual

This Stick Man was erected last year in the first wave of enthusiasm during lockdown when lots of people put up banners and flags and so on supporting key workers, particularly NHS workers who might be passing.  This was a bit of an odd outlier from the first, because it's down a very minor lane with very few people passing, but gained popularity because it's on the route of a circular walk from the nearest large village, and the owners of Stick Man left out slices of tree-trunk and encouraged people to pick them up, paint them, then bring them back and hang them on the gate.


After a damp winter, both Stick Man and his votive offerings are now starting to develop all sorts of interesting fungi.
If you know the local story of him, he's benign enough, but I imagine if you are far from home, (as, for example, a visiting NHS ambulance driver might be) and stumble across this randomly by the roadside, he would be rather disturbing :-D