Because this proposal was never adopted, the original astronomical rule continued, which excluded any other fixed arithmetic rule. were to be leap years) except that year 4000 (the last year of ten 400-year periods) should be a common year instead of a leap year. The proposed rule was to determine leap years by applying the rules of the Gregorian calendar to the years of the French Republic (years IV, VIII, XII, etc. The years III, VII, and XI were observed as leap years, and the years XV and XX were also planned as such.Ī fixed arithmetic rule for determining leap years was proposed in the name of the Committee of Public Instruction by Gilbert Romme on 19 Floréal An III ( ). Leap years in the calendar are a point of great dispute, due to the contradicting statements requiring the year to start at the autumnal equinox while adding a leap day every 4 years (like the Gregorian calendar). Some legal texts that were adopted when the Republican Calendar was official are still in force in France and have kept their original dates for citation purposes.Ĭriticism and shortcomings of the calendar Some enthusiasts in France still use the calendar, more out of historical re-enactment than practicality. Many conversion tables and programs exist, largely created by genealogists. However, it was used again during the brief Paris Commune in 1871 (year LXXIX). Napoléon finally abolished the calendar effective 1 January 1806 (the day after 10 nivôse an XIV), a little over twelve years after its introduction. Sunday or the Sabbath was reintroduced by the Concordat of 1801, effective Easter Sunday, 18 April 1802. Clocks were manufactured to display decimal time, but it did not catch on and was officially abandoned in 1795, although some cities continued to use decimal time as late as 1801. Each day was divided into ten hours, each hour into 100 decimal minutes and each decimal minute had 100 decimal seconds. The five or six extra days needed to approximate the tropical year were placed after the months at the end of each year. There were twelve months, each divided into three ten-day weeks called décades. The first day of each year included the autumnal equinox. As a result, the calendar is based on a date one year before it was actually adopted. Years appear in writing as Roman numerals (usually), counted from the beginning of the 'Republican Era', 22 September 1792 (the day the French First Republic was proclaimed, one day after the Convention abolished the monarchy). The calendar was adopted by the Jacobin-controlled National Convention on 24 October 1793. It was designed by the politician and agronomist Charles Gilbert Romme, although it is usually attributed to Fabre d'Églantine, who invented the names of the months. The French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar is a calendar proposed during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about twelve years from late 1793.