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The social failure, however, was the more immediate cause of its abandonment. The FRC took away much traditions, holidays, habits, and social patterns. To replace the losses to society, it offered a dogmatic rationalism, and little else. It is fair to say that with the FRC, France traded Christmas for a clock with 10 hours. John Jones (or in this case, Jacques Bonhomme) recognized the exchange as a bad one. |
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9.11.2
French Revolutionary Calendar |
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This section discusses the calendar implemented in France, in A.D. 1793, following the revolution in that country. |
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One of the results of the French Revolution was a calendar called the French Revolutionary or French Republican calendar, and abbreviated here as FRC. The calendar saw use for fewer than 14 years. |
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9.11.2.1.1
Structural Details |
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Structurally, the FRC is a type of Alexandrian calendar, very similar to the ancient Egyptian calendar, after which it was apparently modeled. It consists of 12 uniform months of 30 days with an epagomenal period of five days appended to the end of the year. A sixth epagomenal day is appended at the end of the year in leap years. The epagomenal period was called the Sanscullotides, and each day within the period was separately named. The term refers to the poor (literally, those without pants), in whose name the revolution was carried out. |
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The regular month is divided into three Decades of 10 days, with the 10th day being considered a day of rest. The Decade unit roughly corresponds to a week, in the sense of being a time unit larger than a day and smaller than a month. It is, of course, "metric" in its use of the number 10. The Decade recalls the Egyptian system of decans and provides an additional intellectual link between the two calendars. The poor were quick to realize that their work week had been lengthened, not shortened, by their revolution. |
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The names of the days of a Decade are rationalized to the point of boredom, being based on the numbers one through 10. |
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In historical practice, the Decade was used in recording dates, with the logical consequence that four, not three, units were required to record an FRC date. A date would be written, for example, as Decade II, Quintidi de Frimaire, An II de la Revolution, to indicate day 15, month 3, and year 2. The SCDTL system carries FRC dates using the DATE_INFO structure, and routines are supplied to convert to and from the Decade format. Most authors, it should be noted, simply ignore the Decade and use the daymonthyear format for the FRC (e.g., 15 Frimaire An II). |
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A period of four years (1,461 days) is termed a Franciade. As a unit, it is little more than an expression of nationalistic fervor. |
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