After the 1789 revolution, a new calendar and a new way of Divide the day. The calendar, officially adopted on October 24, 1793, divided the year into twelve months of thirty daysto which 5 were added which were not part of any month. The year began the first day of the month of harvestwhich for us is September 22nd. The revolutionary calendar remained in force until 1806, when it was abolished by order of Napoleon. In 1793 a new system was also introduced to divide the day, based on the decimal system: instead of 24 hours, it lasted every day 100 hours of 100 minutes. The system, however, was not successful and In 1795 he was effectively abolished.
The introduction of the French revolutionary calendar and its abolition
In revolutionary France, after the abolition of the monarchya new time measurement system was adopted. The political exponents of the Republic decided to put aside the Gregorian calendarbased on the Judaic-Christian tradition, and all other time measurement systems. Therefore, they introduced a new calendara new system of Division of the day based on the decimal system, and a New calculation of the yearswhich starts not from the birth of Christ, but from the establishment of the Republic in France. The calendar was processed by a Commission chaired by mathematician Gilbert Romme and composed of important scientists, including Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Pierre Simon Laplace, Gaspard Monge and Jerôme Lasse.
The calendar was Adopted by the Convention on October 24, 1793 and remained in force until 31 December 1805; From January 1, 1806, by Napoleon’s decision, the use of the Gregorian calendar was restored. For a short period, the revolutionary calendar was reintroduced in the official documents of the Municipality of Paris of 1871after then, has no longer been used in any country
The calculation of the time and the name of the months in the French Republican calendar
According to the revolutionary calendar, the year was composed of 12 months of thirty daysto which in the end they added 5 additional days (6 in the Bisestili years), considered holidays. Every month he was divided into Three periods of ten days. The days were appointed as follows:
- first
- duodes
- tridi
- quartid
- quintid
- sextids
- septid
- octids
- nonid
- decades
The days were not dedicated to the saints, as it happened previously and as happens today, but but plantswith the exception of the only two holidays: the “Quintidì”, dedicated to animalsand he “decreased”, dedicated to agricultural tools. There week was abolished.
Year It started on September 22nd (day following the abolition of the monarchy, which took place on September 21, 1792); The period 22 September 1792-21 September 1793 was considered the year I.
The names of the months were chosen by the playwright Philippe François Nazaire Fabre, better known as Fabre d’églantinewhich was inspired by the weather conditions and agricultural work. The months were therefore the following:
- harvest (Vendémiaire), September 22-21 October
- brutal (Brumaire), 22 October-20 November
- frimaio (Frimaire), November 21-20 December
- snowy (Nivôse), December 21-19 January
- rainy (Pluviôse), January 20-18 February
- windy (Ventôse), February 19-March 20
- germ (germinal), March 21-19 April
- flower (Floréal), April 20-19 May
- meadows (prairial), May 20-18 June
- Messidoro (Messidor), June 19-18 July
- thermidorous (Thermidor), July 19-17 August
- fruit (Fructidor), August 18-16 September
Between fruit and harvest, there were “extra” days, not belonging to any month.
To carry out the conversion from the Gregorian calendar to the revolutionary calendar there are several applications. As an example, on July 14, 2025 and Quintidì of Messidoro (third decade of the month) of the year 233.
The division of the day: when an hour lasted 100 minutes
After the revolution, the French political institutions also changed the way of Divide the day. In November 1793 it was established that, instead of 24 hours of 60 minutes, the day was divided into 10 hourseach of which composed of 100 minutesin turn composed of 100 seconds.
Each “hour” was therefore equivalent to 2 hours and 24 minutes according to our way of counting time. The new system was developed inspired by the decimal system, which had been developed by a commission chaired by Lagrange in 1791, but had little success Because he created a lot of confusion among citizens. In 1795 the Directory established that theuse was optional: In fact, almost no one continued to divide the day into 10 hours and the system disappeared almost completely.
