May Festivity in the Republic of Macedonia on the pages of New Macedonia newspaper (1955 – 1956)

Andony Andreev, PhD student

This paper studies the official state festivity in the People’s Republic of Macedonia in the month of May, 1955–1956. ‘Nova Makedonija’ has been selected as the primary source of information since it’s the main newspaper in the republic, thus following closely the official politics of both PR Macedonia and Federal PR Yugoslavia. 

In 1955 – 1956 , the month of May contains the following holidays: 1 May – International Workers’ Day, 15 May – Victory Day (in FNRY) and 25 May – Tito’s Birthday (since 1956 – Day of Youth). All the holidays come from the federal center, therefore studying this festivity in PR Macedonia provides clues on the nature of the Yugoslav layer in the new Macedonian national identity, acquired by the population of the republic after the Second World War. Examined in its complexity, those holidays emit a strong triune message putting in condition of state-driven synergy components with different meaning. 

At one end of this semantic triangle are the ideology and propa-ganda potential of the International Communist Movement, while the Yugoslav army – the guardian of the state – being on the other end. At the top of this construction stands the Youth, headed by ‘(...) the most loved one – Tito’.