Talk:French Republican Calendar
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Note: Emacs M-x calendar groks the French Revolutionary Calendar. In case you needed to consult French Revolutionary dates while using the one true text editor (sorry vi folks).
The calendar also put them out of step with everyone else in Europe.
- Though of course they would have said that the rest of Europe was out of step with France. (If I used smilies I'd add one here.)-- Jmabel 14:30, Jul 10, 2004 (UTC)
I have some questions: It what way was this calendar incompatible with having an Emperor and nobility?
I don't see how it was incompatible with setting dates for fairs and markets. (anonymously asked in July 2004)
- It would be good if someone who knows more than me about the Napoleonic era could address this. -- Jmabel 15:17, Jul 10, 2004 (UTC)
I'm not sure. Employing my unfortunately modest powers of mind-reading, I think the person who wrote that was thinking along these lines: The architects of the calendar were trying to abolish everything that was not in keeping with Reason and Liberty, so the introduction of the new calendar came to symbolize the entire Jacobin remodelling of revolutionary society. Napoleon's coronation represented a very sharp turn away from that remodelling. However, I really think we could fairly cut the words "but mainly because he had crowned himself Emperor of the French in December 1804 and had created the new Empire's Nobility during the year 1805. These were both concepts that were incompatible with the fundamental tenets of the calendar", not just because it's unclear what they're supposed to mean, but because they're based on conjecture about Napoleon's motives. The Concordat with Rome was the immediate impetus for abolishing the calendar. QuartierLatin1968 06:13, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC) (Sniff sniff. Such a lovely calendar.)
"Perhaps the most famous" : then what about 9 thermidor ? Starting of a year : isn't it supposed to be on the day of the proclamation of the First Republic ?
- Yes, article now says that. It was one day after the abolition of the monarchy. -- Jmabel 15:17, Jul 10, 2004 (UTC)
I seem to remember reading somewhere that this calendar was first proposed almost immediately upon the establishment of the Republic. Does anyone have a citation for this? -- Jmabel 14:30, Jul 10, 2004 (UTC)
I've removed the passive-voiced, unattributed statement "It was argued that the calendar was scientifically flawed." It was not backed up by any further explanation, not even by a time period in which this was argued. I'd love to see this expanded upon, explained, and back in the article, but as a sentence standing along it's useless. -- Jmabel|Talk 21:18, Oct 12, 2004 (UTC)
Move to "Republican"?
Oh, I thought of something else. Would it be possible to move this article to "French Republican Calendar"? Both names are in use, but it seems to me that Republican is used more -- at least in real, published books (and in French) if not in cyberspace. Also, it is a technically better name, as the Revolution begins in 1789, while a Republic is only declared in 1792, and it's from the proclamation of the Republic that the calendar starts counting. QuartierLatin1968 06:25, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- I'm happy with either, as long as the redirect is maintained. -- Jmabel | Talk 06:47, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC)
suggestions
I suggest that
- the 'days' section be changed by moving the lists to sub-articles or separate articles (each month to get its own article, allowing the Month's name to be referenced by a search, and 360 redirects or disambiguation page entries, as appropriate for the individual names of the months) (whew, I know that's asking a lot, but if you want some help with the grunt work of doing that, I Pedant would be happy to assist, drop me a message) -- replace the lists with some examples of day names, and how they got their name/what they mean?
- move article to French Republican Calendar or similar as mentioned above
- there seem to be a lot of lists, suggest converting to prose where possible or create sub-articles from them as suggested for the 'days' section... anything to make this more easily readable while preserving the information.Pedant 16:59, 2004 Oct 28 (UTC)
- I would be happy to help move the lists of days' names into the pages that already exist for the individual months, as I agree that those lists clutter up the page a little bit. The other lists, however, I think are appropriate. I would not like to read through a prose paragraph just to find the name of the sixth day of the French Republican week.
If anyone has any suggestions as to the format of the current "Days of the year" section after the lists have been moved, please let me know. I'm not sure whether I would be breaking Wikipedia convention to include something like, "Lists of the days in each month can be found on the individual months pages." --Anakolouthon 19:08, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)