French Republican calendar

French Republican calendar

The French Republican calendar was created during the French Revolution. It was used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871. In France, the calendar commemorates the French Republic, not the Revolution, therefore it is known as the calendrier révolutionnaire.

About French Republican calendar in brief

Summary French Republican calendarThe French Republican calendar was created during the French Revolution. It was used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871. The revolutionary system was designed in part to remove all religious and royalist influences from the calendar, and was part of a larger attempt at decimalisation in France. The lengths of the months are the same as those in the Gregorian calendar; however, the 10th, 20th, and 30th are singled out of each month as the end of a décade. Individual days were assigned, instead of to the traditional saints, to noteworthy people. There was initially a debate as to whether the calendar should celebrate the Great Revolution, which began in July 1789, or the Republic, which was established in 1792. The establishment of the Republic was used as the epochal date for the calendar. In France, the calendar commemorates the French Republic, not the Revolution, therefore it is known as the calendrier révolutionnaire as well as the Calendrier de la Révolution. The calendar was used in government records in France and other areas under French rule, including Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Malta, and Italy. Originally, the choice of epoch was either 1 January 1789 or 14 July 17 89. After some hesitation the assembly decided on 2 January 1792 that official documents would be dated Year IV of Liberty and that the year started on 1 January1792.

This was modified on 22 September 1792 when the Republic and the Convention decided that all public documents wouldbe dated Year I of Liberty. The decree of 1793 stipulated that that year began the Republic of France began on January 1, 1793; this was revoked with the introduction of the new calendar, which set 22 September1793 as the beginning of the year II of Republic. The first month in the almanac is Février, ou Duodécembre. through December are already numeric names, although their meanings do not match their positions in either the Julian or theGregorian calendar since the Romans added the months January and February to the original ten-month March to December year of King Romulus. They associated with their work the chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, the mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange, the astronomer Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande, and the poet, actor and playwright Fabre d’Églantine, with the help of André Thouin, gardener at the Jardin des Plantes of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. It is because of his position as rapporteur of the commission that the creation of the republican calendar is attributed to Romme. The calendar is frequently named the \”French Revolutionary Calendar\” because it was created in the Revolution.