French Republican Calendar accepted universally.

[Kishan]

During the French Revolution many innovative ideas came up even outside the political field. The metric system based on the multiples of ten was such a novel idea. Later the metric system was adapted by almost all the countries of the world. The French Revolutionary Calendar or the Republican Calendar was a similar idea. It was adopted by the Revolutionary regime but was abandoned later by Napoleon.
The Republican Calendar was created by a commission headed by Charles Gilbert Romme and supported by Claude Joseph Ferry and Charles Francois Dupais. The proposed calendar was presented to the National Convention on 23 September,1793 and adopted by it on 24 October, 1793.
The new calendar had 22 September, the autumn equinox day as the new year day. There were twelve months having 30 days each and the extra five or six days were added at the end of the year. The names of the months were Vendemiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal, Floreal, Praireal, Messidor, Thermidor and Fructidor. The five extra days (six in leap year) were national holidays at the end of the year. They were called as Celebration of Virtue,Celebration of Talent,Celebration of Labor,Celebration of Convictions and Celebration of Honors. The sixth day coming in leap years was called Celebration of the Revolution.
Each month was divided into three ten day weeks called decades. The ten days of the week were named as primidi, duodi, tridi, quartidi, quintidi, sextidi, septidi, octidi, nonidi and decadi. The last day was the rest day.
The Republican Calendar was in effect for about twelve years from late 1793 to 1805. The Calendar was abolished by Napoleon with effect from 1 January,1806
Thus the Republican Calendar was abandoned by the French themselves. We know that the Gregorian Calendar has many defects. The number of days in a month are not uniform and not distributed in any rational basis. The starting of the year is fixed arbitrarily. Why was not the Republican Calendar accepted like the Metric System? Had it any chances to be accepted as an international calendar system at any time? Will the Gregorian Calendar be ever replaced by a more scientific, more perfect calendar system internationally?

 

[Elfwine]

The problem is that the earth's year isn't "scientific, perfect, or exact" - dividing ~365.25 24 hour periods doesn't work evenly however you do it.

Having a few days at the end of the year or ten day weeks isn't neater or tidier than the Gregorian system.

 

[JorgeGG]

The main problem I see is with the name of the months (Vendemiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal, Floreal, Praireal, Messidor, Thermidor and Fructidor). First, they refer to the weather around Greater Paris and the Northern Hemisphere (yup climates are inverted down south the equator). Would not make sense the names in the tropics, colder or warmmer climates or the mediterranean, and continental like (large plain) countires or areas.

Secondly, some would see has another element of French Imperialism and expansionism. Supposing an ATL where Nappy lives a longer has Emperor or any republican French State exists.

Thirdly, well them we have the calendar. And decimal time?.

Fourthly, runs counter-wise to the 6 days of work and one free day. A big, but BIG cultural change must happen to accept 9 days of work and 1 free day. Besides the obvious problem with religious holidays and Friday/Saturday/Sunday worship services.

 

[NCW8]

Thus the Republican Calendar was abandoned by the French themselves. We know that the Gregorian Calendar has many defects. The number of days in a month are not uniform and not distributed in any rational basis. The starting of the year is fixed arbitrarily.

The number of days in the month are actually more uniform than it appears when you realize that the first month of the year used to be March ( making September the seventh month, October the eighth etc). The pattern of days in the five months March to July are 31, 30, 31, 30 and 31. That pattern repeats for the next five months (August to December) and then starts to repeat again, but the year runs out of days in February, which is why Feb is shorter than the other months. The extra day in Leap Years therefore gets added at the end of the year.

Note that the Republican Calendar effectively has a thirteenth month at the end of the year that is shorter than the other months at 5 or 6 days. Choosing the Autumn Equinox as New Year is just as arbitrary as any other day. Under the Julian Calendar New Year was actually the Spring Equinox, which is still reflected in the start of the tax year in some countries. People who carried on celebrating the old New Year's day after the change to the Gregorian Calendar were subject to ridicule, giving rise to April Fool's Day.

Cheers,
Nigel.

 

[edvardas]

It's like the Lithuanian calendar and part of the Ukranian. Lithuianian October is Spallis, for spalvos meaning of color, the leaves. November is Lapkritis, leaffall. April is balandis or pigeon. If the pigeon is a dumb bird, yhat would mean april fool.
the Finnish calendar also has their own names, but they are different.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

The metric system was adopted because it just plain makes sense. Try doing physics, chemistry on engineering in imperial, vs in metric, and you cry out for metric so fast its not funny.

The other thing is that there were hundreds of different measuring systems out there. Each of several dozen german states had their own - when it didnt vary from town to town and market to market.

Having a single system was a huge improvement.

Whereas, there was a single calendar in europe, well technically two, but the conversion between old style and new style was easy.

Also, the church ran on the standard calendar. The church might have made accomodation to a new set of months, but the observance of Sunday was, and is, vitally important. To adopt the revolutionary calendar, you have to remove the christian church. The french revolutionaries did their best and failed miserably.

So. Asb, im afraid.

 

[Falastur]

I love the French Revolution Calendar for one reason and one reason only: the translations that the British press of the time used for their months, as a mockery of course:

Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety

 

[Xgentis]

The main problem I see is with the name of the months (Vendemiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal, Floreal, Praireal, Messidor, Thermidor and Fructidor). First, they refer to the weather around Greater Paris and the Northern Hemisphere (yup climates are inverted down south the equator). Would not make sense the names in the tropics, colder or warmmer climates or the mediterranean, and continental like (large plain) countires or areas.

Secondly, some would see has another element of French Imperialism and expansionism. Supposing an ATL where Nappy lives a longer has Emperor or any republican French State exists.

Thirdly, well them we have the calendar. And decimal time?.

Fourthly, runs counter-wise to the 6 days of work and one free day. A big, but BIG cultural change must happen to accept 9 days of work and 1 free day. Besides the obvious problem with religious holidays and Friday/Saturday/Sunday worship services.

The french empire did not use the republican calendar.

 

[mrmandias]

Its an almost universal trait in human cultures that calendars have religious significance. The French calendar was no exception--it was obvious to everyone that it was meant as a counter to Christianity.

Units of measurement, on the other hand, had no religious significance.

So there's really no way to accomplish this.

 

[Dan1988]

Hybridize it with the Jewish calendar, and we might get something.

 

[Kishan]

There were several proposals for reforming the Gregorian Calendar so as to make the number of days in a month constant and to keep the relation between the date and the weekday constant. It was also argued that the seven day week should be retained on religious grounds.
International Fixed Calendar is a solar calendar proposal for calendar reform by Moses.B.Cotsworth, presented in 1902.This Calendar has 13 months of 28 days each. The additional month is called Sol and placed between June and July. 13 months of 28 days will make 364 days. The extra day is to be added at the end of the year as a holiday and called yearday. The second extra day that occur in leap year is placed between June and Sol. The extra days are not part of any week. Hence every year has 52 weeks of 7 days each and any date in any month falls on the same day of the week every year. Hence it is a perennial calendar, without any change year to year.
One disadvantage of the 13 month calendar is that it cannot be divided into four equal quarters. Division of the year into quarters is important for commercial purposes. Symmetry454 was proposed to solve this problem. This is a perennial solar calendar with 12 months. The months of February, May, August and November have 5 weeks or 35 days. All other months have 4 weeks of 28 days each. Thus there are four quarters of 91 days each. Here years have 364 days and an additional leap week is added in 5 or 6 years to the December. This is done to avoid extra days outside the 7 day week system.
But I think a combination of both the systems is better. The symmetry454 system having 12 months and four equal quarters should be maintained. The extra day every year should be added at the end of June as June 29, but outside the week as midyear day. The second extra day of leap year should also be added as June 30, outside the week as leapyear day. This will avoid the confusion of adding occasional leapweeks.
There had also been other proposals for reforming the Gregorian Calendar like Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, Tranquility Calendar, Pax Calendar, Invariable Calendar etc.

 

[Makemakean]

Well, I think that the reason that it was abolished in the first place had a lot of do a desire to weaken the grip of the Catholic Church. I mean, we already had stuff like the Festival of the Deity going on, with a few outspoken atheists being major agitators and so, so by removing the Sunday, you are removing the sanctity of Sunday. By the mid (18)00s, the French were beginning to cool down again, Napoleon had himself crowned emperor by the pope and while Roman Catholicism wasn't officially re-instituted as the official religion of France, they did pass some strange act in ambiguous terms declaring that Roman Catholicism was recognized as "the official religion of the great majority of the French" or some sort of odd compromise like that.

By that point, you didn't need a calender to mess with Rome any longer.

Interestingly, I think the best chance you have of bringing back the French revolutionary calendar would be in Soviet Russia. The old Bolsheviks were great admirers of the Jacobins, and the Marseillaise was a very popular song back in the revolutionary days of 1917. And everyone knew that there was no good excuse to carry on with the Julian Calendar. And since they had already abolished the Russian Orthodox Church and stuff, why not go for the French revolutionary calender?

 

[Thande]

The issue with the French Revolutionary calendar was that it was thought up in a rush by a bunch of idealists according to what they found aesthetically pleasing, and thus didn't work very well in the real world. Now the same is true of the metric system, but that has survived despite its shortcomings because it nonetheless represented an improvement on what came before--ancien régime France had formerly had more than six 'imperial' type measurement systems in different regions, all slightly different from each other and making any kind of generalised measurement a nightmare. But everyone was already using the same calendar (well, except Russia) and that calendar had been well thought through by the Gregorian reforms so worked considerably better than the French Revolutionary calendar. So the only real possibility for the latter being used is if a crazy ideological authoritarian regime forces it on people. Makemakean's suggestion of the USSR makes a lot of sense because they were already switching away from the Julian calendar to start with so it doesn't add an extra level of chaotic upheaval as it would everywhere else.

 

[NCW8]

There were several proposals for reforming the Gregorian Calendar so as to make the number of days in a month constant and to keep the relation between the date and the weekday constant.

I wonder why keeping the relation between the date and the weekday constant is seen as an advantage. It means that if, for example, you are born on a Tuesday then your birthday will never fall on a weekend. At least the Gregorian Calendar allows you to celebrate on weekends every few years.

Cheers,
Nigel.

 

[Max Sinister]

Maybe if the revolutionaries gave people two free days per ten-day-week. (And further into the future, a third day. This would mean 30% free days per week, as opposed to our 28.571428...%.)

 

[Socrates]

Maybe if the revolutionaries gave people two free days per ten-day-week. (And further into the future, a third day. This would mean 30% free days per week, as opposed to our 28.571428...%.)

This. I can imagine "the sixth day free!" being a cry of the 1848 revolutionaries.

 

[Elfwine]

The issue with the French Revolutionary calendar was that it was thought up in a rush by a bunch of idealists according to what they found aesthetically pleasing, and thus didn't work very well in the real world. Now the same is true of the metric system, but that has survived despite its shortcomings because it nonetheless represented an improvement on what came before--ancien régime France had formerly had more than six 'imperial' type measurement systems in different regions, all slightly different from each other and making any kind of generalised measurement a nightmare.

This might be a little off topic, but what shortcomings?

Not arguing, but I've never really tried to compare the two.

 

[Xgentis]

Personnaly I think the metric system work really well. Most of the world use it, it did more then just survive.

 

[funnyhat]

The main problem I see is with the name of the months (Vendemiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal, Floreal, Praireal, Messidor, Thermidor and Fructidor). First, they refer to the weather around Greater Paris and the Northern Hemisphere (yup climates are inverted down south the equator). Would not make sense the names in the tropics, colder or warmmer climates or the mediterranean, and continental like (large plain) countires or areas.

The names shouldn't be an issue. Other languages could always give different names for the months. Anyway, the names of months in our current calendar are very abstract to us now. (For example, how many people know that "February" comes from a Latin word meaning "purification"?) The name of a particular month doesn't really matter, as long as people are in agreement when it occurs during the year, and how long it is.

The problem with the Revolutionary Calendar (besides that it doesn't really offer a practical benefit over the older calendar, and inertia will lead people to stick with what they know) is that it doesn't square very well with the traditional Judeo-Christian notion of a seven-day week, so convincing religious groups to accept it would be very difficult.

 

[Kishan]

You are right about the seven day week system, I suppose. The introduction of a ten day week system might have made the Revolutionary Calendar unpopular among the religiously oriented people. But even when it is clear that the Gregorian Calendar is too complex and unscientific, proposals for its reform have not received much support. The Symmetry 454 is a proposal where a seven day week and four equal quarters are included. Many similar proposals have come up at various occasions.