How did July 14th become France's national day?
READ ALSO
:
July 14th: What's happening during France's Fête nationale this year✎
The event is known in English as Bastille Day, even though this term is not used in France where the day is known as
La fête nationale
or simply
le quatorze juillet
.
But, as the English title suggests, the date itself commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 - the day when a mob of freedom-loving Parisians stormed the hated symbol of monarchical tyranny and freed the political prisoners the king had locked up there, thus starting the French Revolution.
Well, sort of . .
It's true that the Bastille was stormed on July 14th 1789, but although the prison had in the past been used to hold political prisoners - including large numbers of protestants - by 1789 it was mostly empty.
Advertisement
According to
contemporary records
, on the date it was stormed it held just seven prisoners - four counterfeiters, two 'madmen' and a nobleman accused of sexual perversion.
The early Revolutionaries may have had more practical matters in mind, as the Bastille was also a royal arsenal. They managed to seize cannons and gunpowder for the weapons that they had recently taken from Les Invalides.
The following year, the anniversary of the event
was marked
with the Fête de la Federation - this contained some elements that we would recognise, including a military parade on the Champ de Mars (nowadays the site of the Eiffel Tower) and some that we definitely wouldn't including swearing an oath of allegiance to the King.
Yes, the King and Queen were both there - a Mass was celebrated and then those assembled took an oath to the Crown, the Nation and the Law.
The threefold oath indicates the power shift that had taken place within the previously absolutist monarchy of France but revolutions can be slow-moving things and it was not until three years later that Louis XVI was executed, followed by his queen Marie Antoinette.
The July 14th event of 1790 proved to be a one-off, the Fête de la Federation was never celebrated again - perhaps because the revolutionaries were embarrassed at the royal oath-swearing, perhaps they simply had other things on their mind as the Revolution moved into its final and bloody form during the Terror.
The idea of July 14th as a 'start date' for the Revolution is something that came about more gradually as people looked back to the event itself and what came after. But it was a nice symbol and a suitably dramatic event that soon began being immortalised in paintings, poems, songs and novels.
Arguably the opening of the États généraux - the parliament that represented ordinary Frenchmen as well as nobles - in 1789 was a more significant event, but a bunch of men having a meeting is quite a boring subject for artworks.
A protester clutching a copy of a painting depicting the 1789 storming of the Bastille, at a demo in France in 2021. Photo by Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS / AFP
Advertisement
It took almost 100 years before July 14th came back as a special day - it was finally enshrined as France's national day, and a public holiday, in 1880, after several years of discussion.
During the debates on the subject in parliament several other dates were suggested including May 5th (the anniversary of the opening of the Etats généreaux) and August 4th (anniversary of the abolition of hereditary privileges) - in the event July 14th was chosen but the law formalising it does not specify whether it is intended to mark the storming of the Bastille, the Fête de la federation or both.
Advertisement
Since the storming of the Bastille, France had been a monarchy, a republic, a restored monarchy, an empire (under self-proclaimed emperor Napoleon) and a republic again but by 1880 it was settled into the form that it - mostly - has been in ever since; a republic with a parliamentary democracy.
A military parade took place on the first event in 1880 and has been involved in most July 14th celebrations since, although it only started being held on the Champs-Elysées in 1919, when it featured World War I veterans alongside the serving soldiers.
A more recent tradition was started by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1978 - the presidential TV interview. This doesn't happen every year, and some presidents prefer to do a speech rather than an interview, but in most years the French president speaks to their people via the TV.
The Bastille prison is no more, but the place where it once stood is in more or less the same place as Place de la Bastille. This large open space is used for various events, but it's often the site of protests or demonstrations, thus retaining its revolutionary edge.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local France
2 hours ago
- Local France
French farmers dump manure and throw eggs in petition counter-protest
About 100 farmers from the southern départements of Tarn, Gers, Tarn-et-Garonne, Haute-Garonne, Ariège, and Hérault spread manure, dumped wool and threw eggs at the Toulouse headquarters of the green party on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Delphine Batho , Green MP for Deux-Sèvres, took to social media after her offices in Melle, 30km east of Niort, were also damaged – by, she said, members of the farming unions Jeunes Agriculteurs et la FNSEA in an effort to 'silence her on the Loi Duplomb.' The previous day, the Ministry of the Interior had recorded ' nine attacks on parliamentarians ' , with, in most cases, ' damage to offices, gatherings in front of offices or insults on social networks ' . Advertisement The protests and damage marks a rise in temperature in the debate over the 'Loi Duplomb' - law that has already been passed by parliament but which has attracted huge support for a petition against it. The law itself is proposed as simplifying rules and regulations for French farmers, but also contains plans to reintroduce a controversial pesticide which is known to kill bees. READ ALSO : The Local France - News and practical guides in English Tuesday's protest in Toulouse was called by farmers' union Coordination Rurale, in response to the online petition calling for the law to be repealed, which on Wednesday morning had more than 1.7 million signatures . The farmers said they were taking action to 'denounce the manipulation behind this petition against the Loi Duplomb.' The law, formulated in response to 2024's farmers' protests, and passed on July 8th, a few days before MPs broke-up for their summer vacations, reintroduces – among a number of measures to 'simplify' farming administration – the use of controversial pesticide acetamiprid, that had been banned in France but remained legal elsewhere in Europe. The use of acetamiprid, which is toxic to biodiversity, was demanded by beet and hazelnut producers, who claim they have no other solution to combat pests and say they are suffering from unfair competition from foreign producers. France's Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire has issued two opinions demonstrating that alternative products do exist. 'If we [cannot use] this product … all our sugar and hazelnuts will be imported from abroad,' Pierre-Guillaume Mercadal, spokesperson for the Tarn-et-Garonne Coordination Rurale, told AFP on Tuesday evening. Mercadal described the Loi Duplomb as, 'a positive sign in the sense that we are making a law for farmers,' but 'it's a drop in the ocean – we need much more.' 'The Loi Duplomb is not the best in the world, but it was the one that listened to what we had to say,' added Dominique Raud, vice president of the Haute-Garonne section of the union. Advertisement 'The popular opinion comes from people in the city; we are in the countryside,' Raud added. 'We are the first environmentalists ... We see climate change, we are suffering from it.' Although some farmers unions support the Loi Duplomb, others are against it - especially producers involved in bee-keeping. Although the law itself was passed by the French parliament earlier in July it has not yet been put into effect and there are growing calls for another debate or to challenge some parts of the law. Some are calling on president Emmanuel Macron to use his constitutional powers to block it.
Local France
a day ago
- Local France
French word of the day: Bancal
Why do I need to know bancal? Because you may hear one politician use it in reference to the arguments of a rival. What does it mean? Bancal (or bancale ) – pronounced bonk-al – is an old Provençal adjective that has drifted into relatively common usage. It was originally used to describe the limping, uneven gait of someone who is lame, while it could also be used to describe, for example, a table with a rickety leg. Advertisement Over time, its definition has extended to take in unsound or flawed reasoning. Think of the English phrase 'shaky ground' or 'shaky logic' and you have the general idea. Use it like this L'ambition sans imagination est toujours bancale – Ambition without imagination is always shaky Parfois, on ne peut pas défendre des phrases certes bancales – Sometimes, it is impossible to defend statements that are clearly flawed. Je déteste les situations bancales – I hate awkward situations
LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
US ex-policeman sentenced to 33 months over fatal Breonna Taylor raid
A US federal judge on Monday, July 21, rejected an appeal for leniency by the Justice Department and sentenced an ex-police officer to 33 months in prison for violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whose 2020 killing fueled widespread protests. Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police department detective, was convicted by a jury in Kentucky in November, for having abused Taylor's civil rights by firing shots during a botched police raid on her home. In an unusual intervention last week, Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department's (DOJ) civil rights division, asked Judge Rebecca Jennings to sentence Hankison to time served: the single day he spent in jail at the time of his arrest. However, Jennings, who was appointed to the bench by US President Donald Trump during his first term as president, rejected the recommendation and said she was troubled by the prosecutor's sentencing memorandum and arguments for leniency, the Louisville Courier Journal said. She sentenced him to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Hankison faced a maximum penalty of life in prison. 'Continue to call out the DOJ's failure' Dhillon, in her sentencing memorandum to the judge, had argued that a lengthy prison term for Hankison would be "unjust." "Hankison did not shoot Ms. Taylor and is not otherwise responsible for her death," she said. "Hankison did not wound her or anyone else at the scene that day, although he did discharge his duty weapon 10 times blindly into Ms. Taylor's home." Responding to Monday's verdict, the Taylor family's lawyers noted that while the sentence did not "fully reflect the severity of the harm caused," it was "more than what the Department of Justice sought." "We respect the court's decision, but we will continue to call out the DOJ's failure to stand firmly behind Breonna's rights and the rights of every Black woman whose life is treated as expendable," they said in a statement. Biden-era discrimination lawsuits dropped Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping in her Louisville apartment around midnight on March 13, 2020, when they heard a noise at the door. Walker, believing it was a break-in, fired his gun, wounding a police officer. Police, who had obtained a controversial no-knock search warrant to make a drug arrest, fired more than 30 shots back, mortally wounding Taylor. Hankison fired 10 shots during the raid, some into a neighboring apartment, but did not hit anyone. He is the only police officer convicted in connection with the raid. Help us improve Le Monde in English Dear reader, We'd love to hear your thoughts on Le Monde in English! Take this quick survey to help us improve it for you. The deaths of Taylor, 26, and George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, became the focus of a wave of mass protests in the United States and beyond against racial injustice and police brutality. In May, the Justice Department announced that it was dropping lawsuits filed by the administration of former president Joe Biden against police forces in Louisville and Minneapolis that accused them of using excessive force and racial discrimination.
