The Revolutionary Calendar

When the French Revolution had begun to remove many of the vestiges of the ancient regime.  Many Revolutionaries were concerned at the lingering power of the Catholic Church.  In this time of enlightenment there was also a desire to rationalise time and tame the inherent intricacies of the calendar.  A commission was created under the leadership of  Charles-Gilbert Romme  featuring the likes of Monge a fellow mathematician, the poets Chénier and Fabre d’ Eglantine and the painter David.

The finished product was the sum of these rather diverse group of individuals.  A year consists of 365 or 366 days, divided into 12 months of 30 days each, followed by 5 or 6 additional days. The months were divided into 3 décades replacing the traditional week.  These were made up of ten days this consisting of 9 working days and 1 day of rest.  This it was hoped would lead the populace to forget the old system and would mean no one would be able to follow the old holy day of Sunday.  It was also hoped that it would increase the productivity of France in a time of war.

The months were named after the prevailing weather conditions of each.  Thus Vendémiaire which started mid-September was named after the grape harvest and Thermidor derived its name from the Greek from summer heat it being based in late July.  More mundanely the days of the week were given after the day they fell in the ten day cycle for example nonidi being the ninth day.  A more romantic twist was given to each day with each one giving a symbolic item mainly orientated around agriculture.  For example the 18th Thermidor was almond while the 5th of Nivôse (formally the 25th December) was dog.

The Calendar was instigated in autumn 1793.  Years were counted based around the establishment of the first Republic on 22 September 1792.  Bafflingly this meant that the French had already enjoyed their year one of the revolution without knowing it.

The Commission also addressed the minutiae of seconds, minutes and hours.  The day would be divided into 10 hours, each of these hours would have 100 decimal minutes which would consist of 100 seconds.  Although some clocks were made for this uniquely rational system it was not widely adopted and abandoned with two years.

The calendar itself would not last and be abolished by Napoleon Bonaparte.  It was noted that the 10 day working week was deeply resented by the populace who were robbed of their 1 day off in 7 rather 1 in 10.  There was also many French who saw the removal of Sunday as a holy day as sacrilegious and Bonaparte eager early on in his career as Emperor was seeking to build bridges with the Vatican.  Equally the unique months based around the French weather systems did not suit an empire which was beginning to stretch across Europe and would perhaps one day stretch across the globe.

Gabriel Brute reports on de-Christianisation and Cult of Reason.  Taken from Memoirs of the Right Reverend Simon WM. Gabriel Brute, The Catholic Publication Society, New York (1876) p115-117

I could relate many curious things in regard to the profane celebration of the Festivals of Reason, as they were called. The Age of Reason, as Paine calls it, was, as they hoped, fully established in our France, and every decadi was sanctified by 'some new invention. I can still see with my mind's eye the curious processions which they made through the streets of the city on those days, going to the Temple of

Reason. They were composed of youths on the Festival of Youth of hoary men, picked up for the purpose, on the Festival of Old Age of husbandmen, carrying with them the implements of agriculture, on the Festival of Agriculture of mechanics with their tools, on the days of the Arts. In the month of "Fructidor" they had exhibitions of Fruits and of the various returns of the harvest, in their special times.  Now it all seems like a dream, and these exhibitions and processions have a ridiculous effect, as seen through the faint memory of them. Those who had established them supposed that they would accustom the multitude to do without Religion, except the religion of nature, as they called it. As each Decadi came around, they endeavoured to make it more attractive by new inventions of pompous shows, or philosophical and sentimental exhibitions, mixing up with them special ovations and songs, civic banquets and public games, copied from the old Greek and Roman Republics. The first year, and first round of these profane and systematic attempts to root out the Christian Religion from the hearts of the people and make them Infidels, went on with such a continual supply of novelty and interest, for the multitude, that it made an impression which now it would be difficult to estimate correctly. Even then, however, the effect was often very ridiculous, and as the repetition of each Decadi proved more forced and tiresome, it became dark and hopeless, as the times were the best mark by which we could measure the slow but certain return of the old and true Religion, and the failure of this impious scheme self-defeated as it proved. The thought, the very memory of those miserable exhibitions, has true Religion, and the failure of this impious scheme self-defeated as it proved. The thought, the very memory of those miserable exhibitions, has vanished away.