Oksfordo miesto tapatybė: Gegužės dienos šventės atvejis
The Identity of Oxford City: A Case Study of May Day Festival

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the identity of Oxford city based on a case study of the May Day festival. Drawing on the phenomenological approach and theoretical background of K. Lynch and A. Reed, particular attention is given to the image of the city. The analysis of a city identity is based on the ethnographic fieldwork of May Day in Oxford from 2012 till 2021. The study examines the May Day as a calendar spring festival, a city festival, and an Oxford University festival. Thus, through these three aspects of the celebrations, there emerges not only the local tradition of Oxfordshire County and the city but also the global tradition of the academic life of the university. Through dialogues, visual, verbal and non-verbal symbols, gestures, sound and music, photographs and films, a city celebration can become a place where one becomes acquainted with the images and people of the city. Observing the May Day celebration while walking through the city, using five sensory senses, photographs and sources of archival material, narratives of respondents helps us understand the old tradition of the festival, its cultural and historical importance for current Oxford city identity. In this way, the identity of the city can be recognized through the images, sounds, smells, touch, taste receptors of the city, all of which are created by the whole urban environment: the landscape, the architectural environment, the activities of the festival participants and the artistic performances.

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