French Revolutionary Calendar

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A French Revolutionary Calendar in the Historical Museum of Lausanne.

The French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar is a calendar proposed during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about twelve years from late 1793.

The Emperor Napoléon finally abolished the calendar effective 1 January 1806 (the day after 10 Nivôse an XIV), a little over twelve years after its introduction. However, it was used again during the Revolution of 1848 and during the brief Paris Commune in 1871 (year LXXIX).

Many conversion tables and programs exist, largely created by genealogists. Some enthusiasts in France still use the calendar, more out of historical re-enactment than practicality.

[edit] Origins and overview

The calendar was designed by the politician and agronomist Charles Gilbert Romme, although it is usually attributed to Fabre d'Églantine, who invented the names of the months. It was adopted by the Jacobin-controlled National Convention on 24 October 1793.

French Republican Calendar of 1794, drawn by Louis-Philibert Debucourt.Years appear in writing as Roman numerals (usually), counted from the beginning of the 'Republican Era', 22 September 1792 (the day the French First Republic was proclaimed, one day after the Convention abolished the monarchy). As a result, Roman Numeral I indicates the first year of the republic, that is, the year before the calendar actually came into use. The first day of each year included the autumnal equinox. There were twelve months, each divided into three ten-day weeks called décades. The five or six extra days needed to approximate the tropical year were placed after the months at the end of each year. Each day was divided into ten hours, each hour into 100 decimal minutes and each decimal minute had 100 decimal seconds. Thus an hour was more than twice as long as a conventional hour; a minute was slightly longer than a conventional minute; and a second was slightly shorter than a conventional second. Clocks were manufactured to display this decimal time, but it did not catch on and was officially abandoned in 1795, although some cities continued to use decimal time as late as 1801.

A period of four years ending on a leap day was to be called a "Franciade".

Sunday or the day after the Sabbath was reintroduced by the Concordat of 1801, effective Easter Sunday, 18 April 1802.

[edit] Criticism and shortcomings of the calendar

Leap years in the calendar are a point of great dispute, due to the contradicting statements in the establishing decree[1] stating:

"Each year starts at midnight, with the day when the true autumnal equinox falls for the observatory of Paris."

and:

"The period of four years, at the end of which this addition of one day is usually necessary, is called the Franciade...The fourth year of the Franciade is called Sextile."

Thus, the years III, VII, and XI were observed as leap years, and the years XV and XX were also planned as such, even though they were five years apart.

A fixed arithmetic rule for determining leap years was proposed in the name of the Committee of Public Education by Gilbert Romme on 19 Floréal An III (8 May 1795). The proposed rule was to determine leap years by applying the rules of the Gregorian calendar to the years of the French Republic (years IV, VIII, XII, etc. were to be leap years) except that year 4000 (the last year of ten 400-year periods) should be a common year instead of a leap year. Because this proposal was never adopted, the original astronomical rule continued, which excluded any other fixed arithmetic rule. The proposal was intended to avoid uncertain future leap years caused by the inaccurate astronomical knowledge of the 1790s (even today, this statement is still valid due to the uncertainty in ΔT). In particular, the committee noted that the true equinox of year 144 was predicted to occur at "11:59:40 p.m.", which was closer to midnight than its inherent 3 to 4 minute uncertainty.

The calendar was abolished because having a ten-day work week gave workers less rest (one day off every ten instead of one day off every seven); because the equinox was a mobile date to start every new year (a fantastic source of confusion for almost everybody); and because it was incompatible with the secular rhythms of trade fairs and agricultural markets.

Perhaps the most famous date in this calendar was immortalised by Karl Marx in the title of his pamphlet, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoléon (1852). The 18 Brumaire An VIII (9 November 1799) is considered the end of the French Revolution.

Another famous revolutionary date is 9 Thermidor An II (July 27 1794), the date the Convention turned against Robespierre, who, along with others associated with the Mountain, was guillotined the following day. (See Glossary of the French Revolution for other significant dates under this calendar.)

Based on the above event, the term "Thermidorian" entered the Marxist vocabulary as refering to revolutionaries who destroy the revolution from the inside and turn against its true aims. For example, Trotsky and his followers used this term about Stalin.

Emile Zola's novel Germinal takes its name from the calendar, as does the dish, Lobster thermidor. The frigates of the Floréal class frigate all bear names of Republican months.

[edit] Months

The Republican calendar year began at the autumn equinox and had twelve months of 30 days each, which were given new names based on nature:

Autumn:

Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, "vintage") Starting Sept 22, 23 or 24
Brumaire (from French brume, "mist") Starting Oct 22, 23 or 24
Frimaire (From French frimas, "frost") Starting Nov 21, 22 or 23

Winter:

Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, "snowy") Starting Dec 21, 22 or 23
Pluviôse (from Latin pluviosus, "rainy") Starting Jan 20, 21 or 22
Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, "windy") Starting Feb 19, 20 or 21

Spring:

Germinal (from Latin germen, "seed") Starting Mar 20 or 21
Floréal (from Latin flos, "flower") Starting Apr 20 or 21
Prairial (from French prairie, "meadow") Starting May 20 or 21

Summer:

Messidor (from Latin messis, "harvest") Starting Jun 19 or 20
Thermidor (from Greek thermos, "hot") Starting Jul 19 or 20
Fructidor (from Latin fructus, "fruits") Starting Aug 18 or 19

Note that the English names are approximate, as most of the month names were new words coined from similar French, Latin or Greek words. The endings of the names are grouped by season.

In England, people against the Revolution mocked the calendar by calling the months: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety. [2][3].

[edit] Ten days of the week

The month is divided into three decades or 'weeks' of ten days each, named simply:

primidi (first day)
duodi (second day)
tridi (third day)
quartidi (fourth day)
quintidi (fifth day)
sextidi (sixth day)
septidi (seventh day)
octidi (eighth day)
nonidi (ninth day)
décadi (tenth day)

[edit] Extra days

Five extra days (six in leap years) were national holidays at the end of every year. These were originally known as les sans-culottides (after sans-culottes), but after year III (1795) as les jours complémentaires:

La Fête de la Vertu "Virtue Day" on Sept 17 or 18
La Fête du Génie "Talent Day" on Sept 18 or 19
La Fête du Travail "Labour Day" on Sept 19 or 20
La Fête de l'Opinion "Opinion Day" on Sept 20 or 21
La Fête des Récompenses "Rewards Day" on Sept 21 or 22
La Fête de la Révolution "Revolution Day" on Sept 22 or 23 (Leap years)

[edit] Converting to Gregorian Calendar

The calendar was abolished in the year XIV (1805). After this date, opinions seem to differ on the method by which the leap years would have been determined if the calendar were still in force. There are several hypotheses used to convert dates to the Gregorian calendar, of which these three seem to be the most significant:

The leap years would continue to vary in order to ensure that each year the autumnal equinox falls on 1 Vendémiaire, as was the case from year I to year XIV. This is the only method that was ever in legal effect, although it means that sometimes five years pass between leap years.

The leap year would have jumped after year 15 to year 20, after which a leap year would have fallen on each year divisible by four (thus in 20, 24, 28…), except most century years, according to Romme's proposed fixed rules. This would have simplified conversions between the Republican and Gregorian calendars since the Republican leap day would usually follow a few months after 29 February, at the end of each year divisible by four, so that the date of the Republican New Year remains the same (September 22) in the Gregorian calendar for the entire third century of the Republican Era (1993-2092 CE).

The leap years would have continued in a fixed rule every four years from the last one (thus years 15, 19, 23, 27…) with the leap day added before, rather than after, each year divisible by four, except most century years. This rule was never legal or even proposed while the Republican Calendar was in use, but has the advantage that it is both simple to calculate and is continuous with every year in which the calendar was in official use during the First Republic.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at French Revolutionary Calendar. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the Calendar Wikia, the text of Wikipedia is available under Creative Commons License see Wikia:Licensing.

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