The year started in Autumn since that was when the French Republic was born. For example, the winter months were Nivôse, Pluviôse, and Ventôse. And this is where the poet came in – after the astronomers and the gardener determined the normal climatic conditions for the month, the poet coined an appropriate name.Įach season was made up of three months whose names had the same rhyming ending. The new month names would reflect weather conditions during that particular time of year. While the committee had nothing against the Roman gods who presided over the old Gregorian calendar, they wanted their “Republican months” to be inspired by nature. The year could still be divided into 12 months, but everyone agreed that the months needed a major revamp.įirst of all, the months would need new names. Moving along, the mathematicians decided that some things could remain the same. So Septemwas declared day 1 of month 1 of year 1. It seemed that even the planets had aligned to celebrate the new age of the French Republic. It just so happened that Septem(the date the Republic was established) was also the Autumn Equinox. All agreed that since the formation of the Republic was the beginning of a new era for France, everything should be dated from then. The first order of business was to set a start date for their new calendar. (Shouldn’t all committees include a poet?) This group of learned men included politicians, mathematicians, astronomers, a chemist, a gardener, and a poet. So a committee was formed to design a more suitable “Republican calendar”. The old Gregorian calendar was filled with religious holidays and saint days, and that just wouldn’t do for the new Republic’s idea of Separation of Church and State. They wanted to change everything – even how they kept track of time. The French Revolutionaries weren’t content with just changing their government.

French revolutionary calendar 2018