After the establishment, the French Republic, leaders of revolutionary France chose to do away with the Gregorian calendar created by the Catholic Church centuries earlier in favor of adopting a new one. They eliminated most religious holidays, changed the length of the seven-day week to ten days, renamed the months in accordance with the seasons, and established September 22 as the first day of the new year, calling 1793 Year One. In the early stages, the reform of the calendar was rationalized by revolutionary values; it represented a break from the old France and glorified France’s prospective future as a republic. However, in practice, this new calendar became the plight of many French citizens and, as time passed, lost its idealistic revolutionary appeal. It lasted until 1806 when France, under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte, finally reverted back to the pre-revolutionary calendar The calendar itself is clearly influenced by revolutionary ideas.
They are shown in illustrations of newly named months. The new names of the months (Germinal, Floreal, Fructidor, and Brumaire) reflect seasons, not religious themes, showing that the republic was going to be secular In addition, the artist who created these illustrations chose to represent each month with a beautiful woman, displaying renaissance and enlightenment themes, which were central to the French Revolution. The images of these women, who may have been perceived as the new “Goddess/Goddesses of Reason” created by the revolutionary government, were likely used to undermine the old church’s religious ideas and emphasize reason and secularism as aspects of the new calendar. This shows that the intention behind the new calendar was to replace old ideas with revolutionary ideas. Document #6 reinforces this idea.
The author(s) of this document from a French village praised the calendar likely because it was still early on in the republic and most people were optimistic about what a new form of government could offer. This new form of government was represented by the calendar The document states that on the Tenth Day people of the village honor the accomplishments of the republican government, liberty, and virtue. This makes the Tenth Day seem like a replacement of Sunday in the old calendar, which was a day of worship. It is clear from this document that republican values were central to the calendar’s design. Document #5 from 1793, “Instruction Concerning the Era of the Republic and the Division of the Year” decree of the National Convention proves this. It is directly stated that the calendar was designed to emulate reason and philosophy, central Revolution ideas.
Many people used these revolutionary ideas to rationalize the reform of the calendar. Early on in the Revolution before the establishment of the Republic, members of the Third Estate in the Estates General expressed their discontent with the current calendar, stating in their cahier de dole’ances that they wished to reduce the number of religious holidays. Though these Third Estate members probably did not want to abolish the Gregorian calendar or religion completely, as evidenced by their mention of keeping Sundays solemn and holy, they likely did want to reduce the number of religious holidays in order to lessen the First Estate’s (the church’s) influence on society. Members of the Third Estate made up the majority of the population, yet were underrepresented in government and often overruled by the First and Second Estates.
They were likely unhappy with this and saw changing of the calendar as an opportunity to weaken the church and the outdated French Estates system that they were apart of. These sentiments remained prevalent throughout the revolution and gave rationale to the new calendar as a method ofbreaking away from the old. In 1793, Gilbert Romme, head of the calendar reform committee, associates the Gregorian calendar with the ills of old, prevrevolutionary France, using examples of hardship to justify the adoption ofa new calendar. As a revolutionary, Romme probably had an idealistic view of the future of the new republic, which led him to state that the anniversary of the revolution falling on the date of the fall equinox was fate. In addition, as a former member of the Third Estate, it makes sense that he would believe all old French concepts bad and all new, republican concepts to be good. In his mind he may have viewed the creation ofa new calendar as a way to ensure that France break completely away from old ways and move forward to a better future.
Even when the new calendar faced opposition its supporters continued to advocate for it in spite of shortcomings, rationalizing that a departure from old ways could only benefit France. Doc #9 written by the French Minister of Interior. Letourneux, acknowledges the many complaints against the new calendar, but asserts the reasons why it was necessary in the first place. Though this argument was outdated by the late 1790’s, Letourneux claimed that only “enemies ofthe republic“ attacked the calendar and reminded the public that the calendar was simply created to fix the errors of old French society. However, it is likely that Letourneux was fearful ofthe collapse of the calendar because he associated it with the collapse of the new republic.
He had already witnessed the failure of the Republic’s first attempt at government during Robespierre’s Reign of Terror and was currently a member of the unstable, ineffective Directory. Providing rationale for the failing new calendar, which was suppose to represent a glorious future for France, may have been a way to inspire continued faith in the failing French Republic. This again shows that while the reasoning behind the creation ofa new calendar was initially well placed. it later was unable to make up for its various shortcomings. However, although revolutionary idealists were persistent in supporting the new calendar, its issues soon became greater than its benefits.
The calendar meant to represent a break from the hardships of old France failed and, in practice, no longer was able to keep up with the idealistic expectations of Republican France‘s future. Some believed it had become the opposite of what the creators intended. A local government official complained that the celebrations on the Tenth Day did not represent the ideas ofthe republic, liberty, or equality, He claims that the new calendar had actually caused France to revert to the old monarchial ways of preerevolutionary France. These statements from the government official may represent the feelings of many people in the late 1790‘s towards the calendar As a small town government official, he was likely disappointed and angry about the failure of the leaders of the Republic to deliver the liberties, represented by the new calendar, they had promised to the average French citizen.
The people who were most opposed to the new calendar were the peasants. A peasant wrote in a letter that a nine-day workweek is unbearable and that the new calendar contradicted his long-held ideas and habits, A lot ofother peasants probably also shared these sentiments as they mostly did tiring physical work like farming to earn a living and also tended to cling to their religious values more than people of higher classes did. The new calendar took away the peasants’ day of rest from hard work and weekly day of worship, so it makes sense that most of them would be strongly opposed to the new calendar and possibly the new Republic.
