It is based on the mathematical calculation of leap years proposed in 1795 but never used. It will convert Gregorian dates after September 22nd 1792, the official start of the calendar, into the revolutionary calendar. The calculator below is an expanded version of a script which I developed for The Voice of the Turtle. French Revolutionary Calendar on Wikipedia. Image: This Year 2 calendar by Louis-Philibert Debucourt lists the Revolutionary months for 1793 to 1794 in columns.From 1793-1805 France used a different calendar from the rest of the world, until Napoleon abolished it and returned France to the Gregorian Calendar for the start of 1806. So, no longer must you puzzle over the 18th Brumaire, Thermidorian reaction (it's not about physical chemistry) or even lobster Thermidor. Still, two centuries of historians had to labor with conversion tables, until at last came the World Wide Web, with its handy calendar-conversion engines. 1, 1806, which would otherwise have been 11 NivГґse An XIV. The Gregorian Calendar resumed in France and the rest of Napoleon's empire on Jan. The only solution was to use a cumbersome conversion chart, listing each day of each year next to its counterpart in the other calendar.Д®nough! Emperor Napoleon, who'd already abolished the republic itself, abolished the Republican Calendar in September 1805. The approximate Gregorian dates for the beginnings of Revolutionary months varied from year to year because of Revolutionary leap days in 1795, 17, and Gregorian leap years in 17 (but not 1800, which was a century year). Converting dates from one system to the other was not easy. The Republican Calendar was a major bother to French merchants trading with other countries and to foreign merchants and diplomats inside France.

The only public holidays were the year-end festivals. Businesses remained open nine days and closed on the 10th. Clocks and watches are considerably more expensive than paper calendars and ledger books.Д«ut all new legal documents were given dates in the new calendar. Metric timekeeping was even less popular than the Calendrier RГ©volutionnaire. With 100,000 seconds per day, this metric second was about 14 percent shorter than the one we know, of which 86,400 make a complete day. Revolutionaries even attempted a metric day of 10 hours of 100 minutes each of 100 seconds each. Messidor, the month of reaping (June 19).Prairial, the month of meadows (May 20).FlorГ©al, the month of flowers (April 20).VendГ©miaire, month of the vintage (starting approximately Sept.29 leap day of the Gregorian Calendar.Д'Г‰glantine's names for the months poetically reflected the seasons: The Revolutionary leap day thus occurred in the autumn before the Feb. This created a sixth year-end holiday, the Day of the Revolution (making for seven days off). Leap year occurred on the third year of every Franciade, as the four-year cycle was called. Together with the last day of the previous month, they made for six consecutive holidays. Some folks resented that.ДЇive extra days at the end of each year were set aside for the Festivals of Virtue, Genius, Labor, Opinion and Rewards. The 10th day was a day of rest, thus leaving non-agricultural workers with only three days off each month instead of four. The months were divided into three dГ©cades of 10 days each. The year was divided into 12 egalitarian months of 30 days each. It swept away all the festivals and observances, including Sunday and its weekly prayer and rest.

The calendar struck a direct blow against the Catholic Church and its clergy, who had been the powerful First Estate prior to the revolution. That was not only the birth date of the republic, but - rather conveniently, it turned out - the autumnal equinox in 1792. The calendar was regarded as beginning more than a year earlier on Sept. It went into effect and became compulsory on Nov. The date on the Republican Calendar was 14 VendГ©miaire An II (Year 2).

French revolutionary calendar dates