It's Autumn Equinox Time And Another New Year
Yes, autumn has now arrived here in the Northern hemisphere (spring for our Southern hemisphere friends, of course), but for a brief period of twelve years, the autumn equinox marked the start of a new year in some parts of Western Europe.
The French Republican calendar, also called the French Revolutionary calendar, was drawn up to remove the influence of the Catholic Church and the abolished monarchy from daily life. It existed from late 1793 until 1805 and was in use in France as well as areas under French rule at that time, such as Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Malta, and Italy.
The year was still made up of twelve months, but they were renamed in ways to do with the weather or nature, and all were of an equal length of thirty days. The remaining five days (six in a leap year) were tacked on the end of the calendar as Complementary days, not belonging to any particular month, and were days of national holidays and celebrations.
1st complementary day: La Fête de la Vertu, "Celebration of Virtue"
2nd complementary day: La Fête du Génie, "Celebration of Talent"
3rd complementary day: La Fête du Travail, "Celebration of Labour"
4th complementary day: La Fête de l'Opinion, "Celebration of Convictions"
5th complementary day: La Fête des Récompenses, "Celebration of Honors (Awards)"
6th complementary day on leap years only: La Fête de la Révolution, "Celebration of the Revolution"
This new calendar was essentially a decimal calendar and an almost exact copy of that used by the ancient Egyptians - except their year didn’t start on the autumn equinox.
The seven-day week no longer existed. Instead, each month was made up of three periods of ten days, which were called décades.
Days of each décade
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)
Décadi replaced Sunday as the day of rest and festivity.
To further reduce the influence of the church, a rural calendar was introduced, which gave every day of the year a unique name based on rural life: tools, animals, materials, flowers, trees, crops, etc.
Autumn
Winter
Spring
Summer
And this attempt to decimalize everything even extended to currency, measurement, and time!!
The calendar was eventually abolished by Napoleon one year after he became emperor, while the metric system of measurement was retained and currency stayed decimal. But thankfully, the decimal clock never caught on!! Most people still went by the old system that is still used today.
In the decimal clock, each day was made up of 10 hours, not 24, so they were 2.4 times as long as the hours we know now. Each hour was 100 minutes, and each minute was made up of 100 seconds.
Many clocks and watches from that period showed both the decimal and duodecimal systems on the same face!!
Now that really would confuse me!!
So today, as we head into our new season, let’s share all manner of things autumnal, as well as give a nod to this defunct calendar by celebrating all things time and year related, as well as the good old number 10!!
All are welcome.
And please feel free to share all discussions you enjoy.
