And everyone returned to the Gregorian calendar and knew what day it was again. When Napoleon was elected Emperor he abolished the calendar. In less than two years the new time system became optional. The effects of the calendars premise of total rupture can still be felt today whenever the French Revolution is hailed as the beginning of a new. It was an unwieldy and complicated system. And worse, whereas before they had one day off in seven, now they only had one day off in ten. 100 seconds in a minute.Д¬onfused? Yes so was your average Citoyen and Citoyenne. For instance 12 June was Caille-lait which means bed straw, and 2 July was Lavande (Lavender).ДЄ day had 10 hours. Names were given to every day of the year too, based on trees, flowers, plants, animals and farm tools. In England, the French months were referred to as: Snowy, Flowy, Blowy, Showery, Flowery, Bowery, Hoppy, Croppy, Droppy, Breezy, Sneezy and Freezy. If youвЂ™re thinking that sounds like something from a Disney film, youвЂ™re not wrong. Messidor from the Latin вЂmessisвЂ™, corn harvestДЇructidor from the Latin вЂfructusвЂ™, fruit Calendar confusion Prairial from the French вЂprairieвЂ™, meadow Germinal from the Latin вЂgermen, germinisвЂ™, budДЇlorГ©al (from the Latin вЂfloreusвЂ™, flowery PluviГґse from the Latin вЂpluviosusвЂ™, rainy VendГ©miaire from the Latin вЂvindemiaвЂ™, grape harvest was when the new year started вЂ“ in SeptemberДЇrimaire from the French вЂfrimasвЂ™, hoarfrost Poet Philippe FranГ§ois Nazaire Fabre, known as Fabre dвЂ™Eglantine (1750-1794) was given the honour of naming the months. The end of the year was Fructidor which had 5 supplementary days to make the total add up to 365 days (as per the old calendar). And it had a ten day week: primidi (first day), duodi (second day), tridi (third day), quartidi (fourth day etc.), quintidi, sextidi, septidi, octidi, nonidi and dГ©cadi. A revolutionary calendarДЄ secular calendar was established. And the traditional Gregorian calendar with its seven day week and Saints Days and Christian festivals was eliminated. You were no longer Monsieur or Madame, but Citoyen or Citoyenne. The members of the new Republican Government didnвЂ™t just deal with wiping out the royal family and as many nobles as they could, it was also about establishing a new order of equality and unity. The French Republic was established in 1792, three years after the start of the French Revolution. But вЂ“ it was a reproduction of a French Republican Calendar and it bears little resemblance to todayвЂ™s calendars. History of the French Republican CalendarДЄt the beginning of the year a friend who lives in the far south of France emailed me a picture of a calendar left as a gift in his post box by the mayor who had in fact given one out to everyone in the very small village. It also led to new legal and social reforms, the unification of France and a metric system. A royal family deposed, the eradication of royal and religious references, people power, a Queen who almost escaped to America, the start of the Napoleonic era вЂ“ the French Revolution was a period of terror and of turmoil, of civil war and neighbour versus neighbour.

French revolutionary calendar today