If you've been around me for more than 30 seconds this semester, you know I wrote my undergraduate thesis. Even though it was just a little baby thesis, I decided to work with French history, and that ate up a lot of time and energy. So, alas, I've had no time to devote to any extracurricular history.
That said, I'm done for the summer, and am back with a vengeance. To make up for my long absence, I present to you what is possibly the most ridiculous calendar ever created.
Maximilien Robespierre was the force behind the Radical Revolution. If you know two figures from the French Revolution, he is inevitably one of them. He was a young lawyer, who was determined to completely change what it meant to be French. He and his fellow Jacobins were responsible for many major changes, apart from the guillotines and mass executions (as if that weren't enough). On this day (7 May) in 1794, he introduced a new 'state religion' in France, to fill the void left by the now-illegal Catholic Church. He came up with the Cult of the Supreme Being, which I imagine is the 18th century equivalent of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. He changed the systems of weights and measures, and changed the polite forms of address. 'Monsieur' and 'Madame' were replaced by 'Citizen' and 'Citizeness.'
His most hilarious departure from sanity was probably his calendar, which, I should point out, was used in France from 1792 to 1804, and for 18 days in May 1871, during the Paris Commune. It is absolutely ludicrous. I shall explain it to the best of my ability.
Robespierre obviously loved base ten. He used it for his measuring system and his calendar. His ways of measuring things caught on. We call it the metric system. His calendar wasn't so popular. The French Republican Calendar (FRC, henceforth) was adopted on 24 Oct 1794.
Romans counted their years ab urbe condita, 'from the founding of the city,' in 753 BC. The FRC originally counted from the start of the Revolution, 1789. After the storming of the Bastille, people began referring to 1789 as 'Year I.' It wasn't until 1792 that they realized this was confusing financial transactions, and they decided that Year I should begin on 1 Jan 1792. Then, when the FRC was adopted in 1794, Year I began on 22 Sep 1792.
Shockingly, this system somehow outlasted Robespierre and the Terror. Napoleon brought back the original days of the week in 1802. He finally abolished the entire calendar in 1806.
- Years were typically written as Roman numerals.
- The first day of the year is the day of the Autumnal Equinox.
- There were 12 months.
- Each month had three weeks, or decades.
- Each week had ten days.
- That only equals 360 days.
- The five or six extra days were just tacked on at the end.
- Each four-year cycle, from leap day to leap day, was called a franciade.
- The leap year was called a sextile.
But wait, there's more. It's technically called decimal time, though I believe 'wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey' would be more apt. Fasten your seatbelts.
- Every day was ten hours.
- Every hour was 100 earth minutes.
- Every minute was 100 earth seconds.
- In earth time, an hour lasted 144 minutes.
- A minute lasted 86.4 earth seconds.
- A second lasted .864 earth seconds.
- That's still 1440 earth minutes. Just divided up in an incredibly different way.
- Shockingly, this decimal time did not catch on.
- It was abolished in 1795.
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| Do you need a drink yet? |
Now for the months. Remember, the year began on the Autumnal Equinox, which was on either 22, 23, or 24 September. That could shift the start of all the other months back by a day or two. For the sake of my sanity, if not for yours, I will pretend that the equinox was on 22 September.
- Vindemiare, grape harvest. 22 Sep.
- Brumaire, fog. 22 Oct.
- Frimaire, frost. 21 Nov.
- Nivose, snowy. 21 Dec.
- Pluviose, rainy. 21 Jan.
- Ventose, windy. 19 Feb.
- Germinal, germination. 20 Mar.
- Prairial, pasture. 20 May.
- Messidor, harvest. 19 Jun.
- Thermidor, summer heat. 19 Jul.
- Fructidor, fruit. 18 Aug.
The days were slightly easier to remember: primidi, duodi, tridi, quartdi, quintidi, sextidi, septidi, octidi, nonidi, decadi. My only beef with the days is that some, in their attempt to sound Classical, use sounds not typically found in the French language. But Robespierre didn't ask me.
Now, France was a Catholic country, and the Catholic church has a Calendar of Saints, with at least one saint celebrated each day. Robespierre thought of that too, but he made it lamer. Days ending in 5 (in the FRC) were assigned an animal, days ending in 0 were assigned a tool. All the other days were assigned a plant or mineral. (In the following lists, I use the traditional order of days.)
January: clay, slate, sandstone, rabbit, flint, marl, limestone, marble, winnowing basket, gypsum, salt, iron, copper, cat, tin, lead, zinc, mercury, sieve, spurge-laurel, moss, butcher's broom, snowdrop, bull, laurustinus, tinder, daphne, poplar tree, axe, hellebore, broccoli.
February: laurel, filbert, cow, box tree, lichen, yew tree, lungwort, billhook, pennycress, rose daphne, couch grass, common knotgrass, hare, woad, hazel, cyclamen celandine, sleigh, coltsfoot, dogwood, matthiola, privet, billygoat, wild ginger, buckthorn, violet, goat willow, spade.
March: narcissus, elm, fumitory, hedge mustard, goat, spinach, leopard's bane, pimpernel, chervil, twine, mandrake, parsley, scurvy-grass, daisy, tuna, dandelion, wood anemone, maidenhair fern, ash, dibber, primrose, plane tree, asparagus, tulip, hen, chard, birch, daffodil, alder, hatchery, periwinkle.
April: hornbeam, morel, European beech, bee, lettuce, larch, hemlock, radish, hive, Judas tree, romaine lettuce, horse chestnut, arugula, pigeon, lilac, anemone, pansy, blueberry, knife, oak, fern, hawthorn, nightingale, common columbine, lily of the valley, button mushroom, hyacinth, rake, rhubarb.
May: sainfoin, wallflower, fan palm, silkworm, comfrey, salad burnet, basket of gold, orache, garden hoe, thrift, fritillary, borage, valerian, carp, spindle shrub, chive, bugloss, wild mustard, shepherd's crook, alfalfa, daylily, clover, angelica, duck, lemon balm, oat grass, martagon lily, wild thyme, scythe, strawberry, woundwort.
June: pea, acacia, quail, carnation, elderberry, poppy, lime tree, pitchfork, cornflower, chamomile, honeysuckle, bedstraw, tench, jasmine, verbena, thyme, peony, hand cart, rye, oats, onion, speedwell, mule, rosemary, cucumber, shallot, wormwood, sickle, coriander, artichoke.
July: clove, lavender, chamois, tobacco, currant, hairy vetchling, cherry, park, mint, cumin, bean, alkanet, guinea fowl, sage, garlic, tare, wheat, shawm, spelt, common mullein, melon, rye grass, ram, horsetail, mugwort, safflower, blackberry, watering can, switchgrass, common grasswort, apricot.
August: basil, ewe, marshmallow, almond, gentian, lock, carline thistle, caper, lentil, inula, otter, myrtle, rapeseed, lupin, cotton, mill, plum, millet, puffball, six-row barley, salmon, tuberose, winter barley, apocynum, licorice, ladder, watermelon, fennel, barberry, walnut.
September: trout, lemon, teasel, buckthorn, Mexican marigold, harvesting basket, wild rose, hazelnut, hops, sorghum, crawfish, bitter orange, goldenrod, corn, sweet chestnut, pack basket, virtue, talent, labor, convictions, honors, revolution (in leap years only), raisin, saffron, chestnut, crocus, horse, impatiens, carrot, amaranth, parsnip.
October: vat, potato, strawflower, butter squash, mignonette, donkey, four o'clock flower, pumpkin, buckwheat, sunflower, wine press, hemp, peach, turnip, amaryllis, ox, eggplant, chili, tomato, barley, barrel, apple, celery, pear, beet, goose, heliotrope, fig, black salsify, checker tree, plow.
November: salsify, water chestnut, Jerusalem artichoke, endive, turkey, skirret, watercress, leadworts, pomegranate, harrow, bacchante, azarole, madder, orange, pheasant, pistachio, tuberous pea, quince, service tree, roller, rampion, turnip, chicory, medlar, pig, corn salad, cauliflower, honey, juniper, pickaxe.
December: wax, horseradish, cedar tree, fir tree, roe deer, gorse, cypress, ivy, savin juniper, grub-hoe, sugar maple, heather, reed plant, sorrel, cricket, pine nut, cork, truffle, olive, shovel, peat, coal, bitumen, sulfur, dog, lava, topsoil, manure, saltpeter, flail, granite.
Happy basket of gold day, folks.
As I write this, it is 7.20 pm on Tuesday, 7 May 2013.
According to Robespierre, it is 3.05 on Octidi, 18 Floreal CCXI.
I, for one, am glad the French got out of the calendar business and have gone back to doing what they do best-- building barricades.
Vive la France,
Callie R.
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