THE French Revolution it was a historical process that intended to break deeply with the monarchic, feudal and Christian past. which was in force in France, going beyond the creation of the Republic and the removal of social and economical. In the most extreme phase of this process, between 1792 and 1794, the revolutionaries also intended to alter the population's cultural roots. In this proposal, even the counting of time should be transformed. It was for this purpose that the French Revolution calendar.
As the old Gregorian calendar was based on Christian events, the French revolutionaries set out to create a new calendar that would represent the bourgeoisie's worldview. For that, it would be necessary to use rationalism and eliminate religious references from the marking of time.
In this way, year I was no longer the year of Christ's birth. Year I of the French Calendar became the year of establishment of the Republic, in 1793. The first day of the French calendar then corresponded to November 22, 1793, of the Gregorian calendar.
Still aiming to exclude religious references, mathematician Gilbert Romme instituted 10-day weeks, with three weeks in each of the 12 months. Therefore, each month would have 30 days. The objective was to eliminate Sundays, as it is a day of worship to God. Christian holidays were also removed from the calendar.
With the help of the poet Fabre d'Eglantine, the months were named as shown below, which shows the correlation with the Gregorian calendar dates:
Autumn
Harvest (vendémiaire, reference to the grape harvest): 22 September to 21 October;
Brumaire (brumaire, reference to mists, fogs): 22 October to 20 November;
Cold Room (frimaire, reference to frosts): November 21st to December 20th.
Winter
Nivorous (nivose, reference to snow): December 21st to January 19th;
rainstorm (rainfall, reference to rains): January 20th to February 18th;
Windy (windstorm, reference to the winds): February 19th to March 20th.
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Spring
Germinal (germinal, reference to germination): March 21 to April 19;
Floral (floral, reference to flowers): 20 April to 19 May;
Prairial (beach, reference to meadows): 20 May to 18 June.
Summer
Messidor (messidor, reference to harvests): 19 June to 18 July;
Thermidor (thermidor, reference to heat): 19 July to 17 August;
Fruitful (fruitful, reference to the fruit, to fruiting.): 18th of August to 20th of September.
As the calculation of days would add up to 360 days, the days of sans-culottes were instituted, holidays held between September 17th and September 21st of the Gregorian calendar. One maintenance would be the occurrence of a leap day every four years, with the objective of adapting the calendar time to the natural time of the planet's movements.
The days started to be numbered from one to ten, with the following nomenclatures: primidi, duodi, tridi, quartidi, quintidi, sextidi, septidi, octidi, nonidi and décadi. Later, the days were named after plants, minerals and animals. The time stamp within a single day has also been changed. Each day would be 10 hours, each hour 100 minutes; and every minute, 100 seconds. The decimal system was, therefore, the basis for the re-elaboration of the calendar, evidencing the influence of rationalism and mathematics as a counterpoint to the religious influence in the marking of time.
The French Revolution calendar was abolished in 1805, when Napoleon was in power. The reaction of a good part of the population contributed to its being abolished, in addition to the fact that Napoleon also abandoned some revolutionary principles, such as the Republic itself.
The creation of the calendar showed how profound a revolutionary process can be and how difficult it is to transform habits and conventions long ingrained in the collective life of the population.
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* Image Credit: THE HOROLOGICAL FOUNDATION
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
