7d ago

YSK about the French Republican Calendar

en.wikipedia.org

French Republican calendar - Wikipedia

An alternate calendar system briefly used by republican France. It had 360 days per year with 5 or 6 "intercalary" or leap days between years. It had 12 months of 30 days, which were comprised by 3 weeks of 10 days. Every day of the year had a unique name: a common plant, animal, mineral, or tool/equipment (ie January 31 was "Broccoli" and May 4 was "Silkworm").

YSK because it's an interesting alternative to the Gregorian calendar and the occasionally-proposed 13 month calendar.

Though it did have some problems such as starting in late September (very unusual for a calendar) and not having a robust leap-year system.

18 comments

They also had metric clocks.
But in any case, I'm more intrigued by the idea of the calendar with thirteen 28-day months. Too many religions are invested in the question of what day of the week it is to move away from a seven-day week.
- Alternatively 8 months of 5 weeks of 9 days with 5 days spread between them. 3 days off each week. Each month begins on a solstice, equinox, or halfway between them.
  We can go as crazy as we'd like
- Eh fuck religions, they can keep their old antiquated calenders.
- Yes, they also decided to change the time to decimal time.
  The day was divided into 10 hours, each hour was 100 minutes ...
- https://youtu.be/rTJ5g4S_U5E
The Common Era, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, was abolished and replaced with l'ère républicaine, the Republican Era, signifying the "age of reason" overcoming superstition, as part of the campaign of dechristianisation.
So cool.
Shame they then gave up reason and gave power to a self proclaimed emperor who went on murderous rampage across Europe.
I'll never understand how the beautiful Paris Commune led next to fucking Napoleon
- Disenfranchised ruling class commits to counter-revolution. Repeat.
  But for that specifically, it is conveniently called the Thermidorian Reaction, using this calendar's terminology.
I wouldn't mind a 10 day week if it meant work 6 and then get a 4 day weekend.
But who am I kidding our corporate overlords would expect at least 8 on and 2 off
12 months of 30 days
January 31
You can only pick one of these.
- They did not have a 31st day and neither did they have a January. Rather, the day that we call January 31 was the 12th day of Pluviôse and also had its own name "Broccoli"
- Starting the year in January sucks. Ancient civilizations had it right with a start of the year at the Spring equinox. The original design by Sylvain Marechal, right before the Revolution started, did start in March...
  
  I don't see why it sucks, it just makes sense to start it on the winter solstice as the days start to get longer and longer / shorter and shorter depending on the hemisphere you are in
  
  That's completely irrelevant to my point, which was that in a calendar of 12 30-day months you can't have a 31st day of any month.
I would like this calender but we would need to adjust it so that new years falls on the winter solstice.
Plus the 5 leap days would need to be a global celebration / holiday period, and the 6th day every 4 years a massive holiday.
I think it would be fair to highlight that this was revolutionary France' brainchild. It is a republic today as well but they've gone back and forth on that one a bit in the last two centuries.
School year starts around September so that's kind of nice but what did it in, or so I have heard, was the 10 day workweek, just too long.

18 comments