Revolutionary Culture and the Calendar
How the Revolution tried to remake not just government but time itself — with a new calendar, new holidays, new names, and a new relationship between citizens and culture.
Remaking Time
On October 24, 1793, the Convention adopted the French Republican Calendar, replacing the Gregorian calendar that had governed European life for two centuries. The new calendar was a statement of revolutionary ambition: Year I began on September 22, 1792, the day the Republic was proclaimed. There would be twelve months of thirty days each, with five or six supplementary days (the sans-culottides) at the end of the year.
The months were given poetic names by the actor and poet Philippe Fabre d'Eglantine, drawn from nature and agriculture. Autumn brought Vendemiaire (grape harvest), Brumaire (fog), and Frimaire (frost). Winter had Nivose (snow), Pluviose (rain), and Ventose (wind). Spring offered Germinal (germination), Floreal (flowers), and Prairial (meadows). Summer gave Messidor (harvest), Thermidor (heat), and Fructidor (fruit).
The week was abolished. In its place came the decade — a ten-day cycle with one rest day (decadi) instead of Sunday. This was simultaneously a rational reform (France was already adopting the metric system) and a direct attack on the Church, which organized time around the seven-day week, Sunday rest, and the liturgical calendar of saints' days.