Editing French Republican calendar (section)

== Design ==
[[File:French revolutionary date.JPG|thumb|L AN 2 DE LA REPUBLIQUE FR (Year 2 of the French Republic) on a barn near Geneva, dating to 1793 or 1794]][[File:PereDuchesneIllustre1 1 0.png|thumb|upright|1 Floréal, Year 79 issue of ''[[Le Père Duchesne (19th century)|The Son of Père Duchêne]]'', a newspaper published during the [[Paris Commune]].]]Years appear in writing as Roman numerals (usually). Roman numeral I indicates the first year of the republic, that is, the year before the calendar actually came into use. By law, the beginning of each year was set at midnight, beginning on the day the apparent [[September equinox|autumnal equinox]] falls at the Paris Observatory.

There were twelve months, each divided into three 10-day weeks called ''décades''. The tenth day, ''décadi'', replaced Sunday as the day of rest and festivity. The five or six extra days needed to approximate the solar or [[tropical year]] were placed after the final month of each year and called [[Sansculottides|complementary days]]. This arrangement was an almost exact copy of the [[Egyptian calendar|calendar used by the Ancient Egyptians]], though in their case the year did not begin and end on the autumnal equinox.

A period of four years ending on a leap day was to be called a "Franciade". The name "[[Olympiad|Olympique]]" was originally proposed<ref name="Rapportsur">{{cite book |title=Le calendrier républicain: de sa création à sa disparition |date=1994 |publisher=Bureau des longitudes |isbn=978-2-910015-09-1 |page=26}}</ref> but changed to Franciade to commemorate the fact that it had taken the revolution four years to establish a republican government in France.<ref>{{cite book |title=Le calendrier républicain: de sa création à sa disparition |date=1994 |publisher=Bureau des longitudes |isbn=978-2-910015-09-1 |page=36}}</ref> The leap year was called ''Sextile'', an allusion to the "[[bissextus|bissextile]]" [[leap year]]s of the Julian and Gregorian calendars, because it contained a sixth complementary day.

Each day was divided into ten hours, each hour into 100 decimal minutes, and each decimal minute into 100 decimal seconds. Thus an hour was 144 conventional minutes (2.4 times as long as a conventional hour), a minute was 86.4 conventional seconds (44% longer than a conventional minute), and a second was 0.864 conventional seconds (13.6% shorter than a conventional second). [[Clock]]s were manufactured to display this [[decimal time]], but it did not catch on. Mandatory use of decimal time was officially suspended 7 April 1795, although some cities continued to use decimal time as late as 1801.<ref name="Carrigan">Richard A. Carrigan, Jr. "Decimal Time". ''[[American Scientist]]'', (May–June 1978), '''66(3)''': 305–313.</ref> The numbering of years by Roman numerals ran counter to this general decimalisation tendency.

=== Months ===
The month names were based on nature, principally having to do with the prevailing weather in and around Paris and sometimes evoking the Medieval [[Labours of the Months]]. The extra five or six days in the year were not given a month designation but considered {{lang|fr|[[Sansculottides]]|italic=no}} or [[#Complementary_days|complementary days]]. Most of the month names were new words coined from French, Latin, or Greek. The endings of the names were grouped by season. {{lang|fr|-dor}} comes from {{lang|grc|δῶρον}}, {{lang|grc-Latn|dō̂ron}} means 'giving' in Greek.<ref name="Carlyle" />
* Autumn:
** [[Vendémiaire]] (from French {{lang|fr|vendange}}, which means 'grape harvest', derived from Latin {{lang|la|vindemia}} 'vintage'), starting 22, 23, or 24 September
** [[Brumaire]] (from French {{lang|fr|brume}} 'mist', from Latin {{lang|la|brūma}} 'winter solstice; winter; winter cold'), starting 22, 23, or 24 October
** [[Frimaire]] (from French {{lang|fr|frimas}} 'frost'), starting 21, 22, or 23 November
* Winter:
** [[Nivôse]] (from Latin {{lang|la|nivosus}} 'snowy'), starting 21, 22, or 23 December
** [[Pluviôse]] (from French {{lang|fr|pluvieux}}, derived from Latin {{lang|la|pluvius}} 'rainy'), starting 20, 21, or 22 January
** [[Ventôse]] (from French {{lang|fr|venteux}}, derived from Latin {{lang|la|ventosus}} 'windy'), starting 19, 20, or 21 February
* Spring:
** [[Germinal (month)|Germinal]] (from French {{lang|fr|germination}}), starting 21 or 22 March
** [[Floréal]] (from French {{lang|fr|fleur}}, derived from Latin {{lang|la|flos}} 'flower'), starting 20 or 21 April
** [[Prairial]] (from French {{lang|fr|prairie}} 'meadow'), starting 20 or 21 May
* Summer:
** [[Messidor]] (from Latin {{lang|la|messis}} 'harvest'), starting 19 or 20 June
** [[Thermidor]] (from Greek {{lang|grc|θέρμη}}, {{lang|grc-Latn|thermē}}, 'summer heat'), starting 19 or 20 July; on many printed calendars of Year II (1793–94), the month of ''Thermidor'' was named ''Fervidor'' (from Latin {{lang|la|fervidus}}, "burning hot")
** [[Fructidor]] (from Latin {{lang|la|fructus}} 'fruit'), starting 18 or 19 August

In Britain, a contemporary wit mocked the calendar by calling the months: [[:wikt:wheezy|Wheezy]], [[:wikt:sneezy|Sneezy]], and [[:wikt:freezy|Freezy]]; [[:wikt:slippy|Slippy]], [[:wikt:drippy|Drippy]], and [[:wikt:nippy|Nippy]]; [[:wikt:showery|Showery]], [[:wikt:flowery|Flowery]], and [[:wikt:bowery|Bowery]]; [[:wikt:hoppy|Hoppy]], [[:wikt:croppy|Croppy]], and [[:wikt:poppy|Poppy]].<ref>{{citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E6EaAQAAMAAJ&q=%22New+Calendar%22&pg=PA210|title=Sporting Magazine|volume=15|page=210|date=January 1800|publisher=Rogerson and Tuxford|accessdate=23 December 2014|archive-date=6 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406115540/https://books.google.com/books?id=E6EaAQAAMAAJ&q=%22New+Calendar%22&pg=PA210|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation |author=John Brady |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pKjhAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA38 |title=Clavis Calendaria: Or, A Compendious Analysis of the Calendar; Illustrated with Ecclesiastical, Historical, and Classical Anecdotes |volume=1 |page=38 |year=1812 |publisher=Rogerson and Tuxford |access-date=10 October 2018 |archive-date=27 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527074323/https://books.google.com/books?id=pKjhAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA38#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Historian [[Thomas Carlyle]] suggests somewhat more serious English names in his 1837 work ''[[The French Revolution: A History]]'',<ref name="Carlyle">{{cite book |author=Thomas Carlyle |title=The French revolution: a history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=81sQAAAAYAAJ |date=1867 |publisher=Harper |access-date=3 November 2021 |archive-date=27 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527074323/https://books.google.com/books?id=81sQAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> namely Vintagearious, Fogarious, Frostarious, Snowous, Rainous, Windous, Buddal, Floweral, Meadowal, Reapidor, Heatidor, and Fruitidor. Like the French originals, they are [[neologism]]s suggesting a meaning related to the season.

=== Days ===
[[File:Montre revolutionnaire-IMG 4629-black.jpg|thumb|French Revolutionary [[pocket watch]] showing ten-day ''décade'' names and thirty-day month numbers from the Republican Calendar, but with duodecimal time. On display at the [[Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Neuchâtel)]] In Switzerland.]]
Each month was divided into three ''décades'' or "weeks" of ten days each, named:
* ''primidi'' (first day)
* ''duodi'' (second day)
* ''tridi'' (third day)
* ''quartidi'' (fourth day)
* ''quintidi'' (fifth day)
* ''sextidi'' (sixth day)
* ''septidi'' (seventh day)
* ''octidi'' (eighth day)
* ''nonidi'' (ninth day)
* ''décadi'' (tenth day)

Décadis became an official day of rest instead of Sunday, in order to diminish the influence of the Roman [[Catholic Church]]. They were used for the festivals of a succession of new religions meant to replace Catholicism: the [[Cult of Reason]], the [[Cult of the Supreme Being]], the [[Decadary Cult]], and [[Theophilanthropy]]. [[Liturgical year|Christian holidays]] were officially abolished in favor of revolutionary holidays. The law of 13 Fructidor year VI (30 August 1798) required that marriages must only be celebrated on décadis. This law was  applied from the 1st Vendémiaire year VII (22 September 1798) to 28 Pluviôse year VIII (17 February 1800).{{fact|date=April 2025}}

Five extra days – six in leap years – were national holidays at the end of every year. These were originally known as ''[[Sansculottides|les sans-culottides]]'' (after ''[[sans-culottes]]''), but after year III (1795) as ''les jours complémentaires'':
* 1st complementary day: ''La Fête de la Vertu'', "Celebration of Virtue", on 17 or 18 September
* 2nd complementary day: ''La Fête du Génie'', "Celebration of Talent", on 18 or 19 September
* 3rd complementary day: ''La Fête du Travail'', "Celebration of Labour", on 19 or 20 September
* 4th complementary day: ''La Fête de l'Opinion'', "Celebration of Convictions", on 20 or 21 September
* 5th complementary day: ''La Fête des Récompenses'', "Celebration of Honours (Awards)", on 21 or 22 September
* 6th complementary day: ''La Fête de la Révolution'', "Celebration of the Revolution", on 22 or 23 September (on leap years only)

=== Rural calendar ===
The Roman Catholic Church used a [[calendar of saints]], which named each day of the year after an associated [[saint]]. To reduce the influence of the Church, [[Fabre d'Églantine]] introduced a rural calendar in which each day of the year had a unique name associated with the [[Rural economics|rural economy]], stated to correspond to the time of year. Every ''décadi'' (ending in 0) was named after an agricultural tool. Each ''quintidi'' (ending in 5) was named for a common animal. The rest of the days were named for "grain, pasture, trees, roots, flowers, fruits" and other plants, except for the first month of winter, Nivôse, during which the rest of the days were named after minerals.<ref>{{cite book |author=Edouard Terwecoren |author-link=Edouard Terwecoren |title=Collection de Précis historiques |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6nIXAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA31 |date=1870 |publisher=J. Vandereydt |page=31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Philippe-Joseph-Benjamin Buchez, Prosper Charles Roux |title=Histoire parlementaire de la révolution française |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WU4QAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA415 |date=1837 |publisher=Paulin |page=415}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Our starting point was the idea of celebrating, through the calendar, the agricultural system, and of leading the nation back to it, marking the times and the fractions of the year by intelligible or visible signs taken from agriculture and the rural economy. (...)

As the calendar is something that we use so often, we must take advantage of this frequency of use to put elementary notions of agriculture before the people – to show the richness of nature, to make them love the fields, and to methodically show them the order of the influences of the heavens and of the products of the earth.

The priests assigned the commemoration of a so-called saint to each day of the year: this catalogue exhibited neither utility nor method; it was a collection of lies, of deceit or of charlatanism.

We thought that the nation, after having kicked out this canonised mob from its calendar, must replace it with the objects that make up the true riches of the nation, worthy objects not from a cult, but from agriculture – useful products of the soil, the tools that we use to cultivate it, and the domesticated animals, our faithful servants in these works; animals much more precious, without doubt, to the eye of reason, than the beatified skeletons pulled from the catacombs of Rome.

So we have arranged in the column of each month, the names of the real treasures of the rural economy.  The grains, the pastures, the trees, the roots, the flowers, the fruits, the plants are arranged in the calendar, in such a way that the place and the day of the month that each product occupies is precisely the season and the day that Nature presents it to us.
| author=Fabre d'Églantine|title="Rapport fait à la Convention nationale au nom de la Commission chargée de la confection du Calendrier",<ref name="Rapport Fabre">{{Gallica|id=bpt6k48746z.image|t=Convention nationale. Rapport fait à la Convention nationale, dans la séance du 3 du second mois de la seconde année de la République Française, au nom de la Commission chargée de la confection du Calendrier; Par Ph. Fr. Na. Fabre-D'Eglantine,... Imprimé par ordre de la Convention nationale}}</ref> Imprimerie nationale, 1793}}