Previously, people had 1 day in 7 off as a day of rest. That was a minor detail though compared to what it did to people’s work weeks. The variation in the autumn equinox, which determined its start, made it complicated to plot. The French Revolutionary Calendar was never popular for several reasons. The names of the months were meant to reflect what would be happening agriculturally at that time of year in France. They were completely made-up words, inspired by Latin and Greek words for the most part, perhaps meant to inspire by reminding people of Roman and Greek republics in the past. Fabre d’Églantine came up with the names of the months used. The calendar was designed by Charles Gilbert Romme, a politician. The New Year in the calendar started on the autumn equinox (22nd or 23rd of September, depending on the year.)ĭespite its revolutionary nature, however, the Revolutionary Calendar anchored itself in French rural life and attempted to relate to what was happening in agriculture in France at that time of the year. Instead, year 1 was assumed to date from 22 September 1792, when the first French Republic was proclaimed. The calendar did away with the birth of Jesus Christ as year 0. ( The hour and minute part of it though was officially abandoned in 1795.) The calendar was revived briefly in 1871 during the Paris Commune. The calendar was the official calendar in France for 12 years, from 24 October 1793 until it was abolished 1 January 1806 by Napoléon. The extra 5 days a year were assigned to special Celebration Days. Each day had 10 hours, each hour 100 “decimal” minutes and each minute 100 “decimal” seconds. The calendar year still had 12 months, but each month was divided into 3 weeks (called “décades”) of 10 days each. Indeed, Wikipedia will tell you the current day and year using the system, although you'll want to read up on the exquisite problems related to leap years (also helpfully detailed on Wikipedia).įor a bit more on decimal time (including several modern variants), check out our article Decimal Time: How the French Made a 10-Hour Day.The French Revolutionary Calendar, created at the same time as the metric system, was an attempt to create a metric calendar and time system. Of course, all this calendar-nerd stuff leads to the fact that you could still choose to use the French Republican Calendar. It took him more than a year to roll back the revolutionary calendar.) In any case, Janurolled around using the Gregorian calendar and the rest is history. (Incidentally, his coronation occurred on 11 Frimaire, Year XIII of the French Republican Calendar-also known as 2 December, 1804. This was due, of course, to the reign of Napoléon Bonaparte as Emperor. On December 31, 1805, the French government chucked the system-in the year XIV, by Republican reckoning. It began in late 1793 and ran all the way through the end of 1805 (again in the Gregorian reckoning). The French Republican Calendar lasted far longer. Decimal clocks and decimal/standard hybrid clocks continued to be used for years, but for practicality, France returned to the same system of time as its neighbors. By Ap(in the Gregorian calendar), the time system became optional. This was a bit inelegant (days and years being hard to divide cleanly by 10), but at least it was less confusing than trying to sort out what time "noon" was (it was 5 o'clock).įrench Revolutionary Time only lasted 17 months. The leftover days needed to add up to 365 or 366 for the year were tacked onto the end of the year as holidays. Months were divided into three 10-day weeks, and there were 12 months. But it also brought huge headaches.įrench Revolutionary Time came alongside the French Republican Calendar, a further attempt to rationalize time. The system was elegant, doing away with the complex math required for time calculations under a 24 hour/60 minute/60 second system. A day had 10 hours, 100 minutes per hour, and 100 seconds per minute. In 1793, the French switched to French Revolutionary Time, creating a decimal system of time.