The French Revolutionary Calendar

Aujourd'hui:

Le Calendrier Républicain de la Révolution Française

The French Republican calendar was instituted in October 1792 as part of a move away from the establishment and the Christian systems that signified the old regime. The calendar was deemed to have begun on the autumnal equinox of that year, i.e. 22nd September 1792, that being named Year 1 of the Revolution. The calendar was modelled on the Egyptian calendar of 12 months of 30 days each, followed by five or six epagomenal days to keep it synchronised with the solar year. The months were given rather poetic names by writer Fabre d'Églantine (who was later guillotined for his alleged part in a conspiracy), based upon the agricultural and meteorological year in France. The names were also given endings that depended upon the season that they belonged to, i.e. -aire for the autumn months, -ôse in winter, -al in spring and -dor in summer. The months are listed later with their equivalent dates in the Gregorian calendar.

Leap Years

The rule for leap years was originally that the first day of each year would be the day of the autumnal equinox. This meant that although usually leap years would be four years apart, every now and then there would be a five-year gap. Also, in time, it would not be only years that are evenly divisible by four, as in the Gregorian calendar, that would be leap years. This would make it very difficult and confusing for the general public, who did not have the ability to predict when leap years would occur. The first few leap years, then, took place in years 3, 7 and 11. This would have continued with years 15 and 20 but the calendar was abolished in year 14.

This system was seen to be cumbersome, however, and there are several different ideas as to how the system would have continued if it had not been abolished. The simplest would have been to apply the same rules as in the Gregorian calendar from year 20, i.e. leap years would occur in years divided by four, except century years not divisible by 400. This would mean that, generally, the leap day would be added in the same year as the Gregorian leap year. This is the method I have employed here.

The Months

The following table shows the names of the months along with the dates that they begin in common and leap years:

Complementary Days

The extra days, or les jours complémentaires, following the standard 12 months were given names as shown in the table below, along with their dates: