The French Revolution's Calendar: Time Without God

When the French Revolution tried to remake society, it didn't stop at laws and borders — it rewrote time itself. In October 1793, the National Convention introduced a new calendar that abolished the seven-day week, renamed the months with poetic nature-inspired words like Vendémiaire and Thermidor, and made the Republic's birth — not Christ's — the start of the year. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore why the revolutionaries felt they had to dismantle the Gregorian calendar, how poets like Fabre d'Églantine crafted the new month names, and what daily life felt like for ordinary French people under a ten-day 'décade' with no Sundays. They trace the system's rise and fall, from its use in key dates like 9 Thermidor and 18 Brumaire to Napoleon's quiet reinstallment of the old calendar in 1806. Along the way, they ask a bigger question: can a state truly erase centuries of tradition with a decree? And what do we lose when time becomes a political tool? #FrenchRevolution #RevolutionaryCalendar #Fabred'Églantine #Thermidor #Brumaire #Vendémiaire #Sansculottides #Décade #FrenchHistory #Napoleon #GregorianCalendar #Timekeeping #RevolutionaryFrance #NationalConvention #Fabre #HistoryOfTime #France #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo