APPENDIX - Note on the French Republican Calendar

Summary

NOTE ON THE FRENCH REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

This calendar was proposed on 20 September 1793 and adopted on 5 October, (with amendments 24 November), retrospectively as from 22 September 1792, the date of the foundation of the Republic; but for this reason it was never used for the year I. Each month had 30 days. In each month there were three décades of 10 days each; the days were Primedi, Duodi, Tridi, Quartidi, Quintidi, Sextidi, Septidi, Octidi, Novidi and Decadi, the last being the official day of rest. At the end of each year five days were added, called jours complémentaires or sansculottides; and a sixth, called jour de la Révolution, was added at the end of each year preceding a leap year (including the year VII, preceding 1800, which was not a leap year in the Gregorian calendar). Consequently, the republican years began on varying dates in September according to the Gregorian calendar, and the succeeding months also. For this reason it is impossible to give concisely a complete concordance, but that will be found in P. Caron, Manuel pratique pour l'étude de la Révolution française (1912), pp. 221-69; or (for the years II-VIII only) in the 1947 edition, pp. 281-6. The following tables show the dates covered by each year, and the order of the months, which began on dates varying between the 18th and the 24th.