The ten-day weeks proved unpopular amongst workers, who still only got one day off. By this stage, other European countries had been gradually harmonising their calendars, and a decimalised calendar that began the year at a different point only caused confusion. The French government used the calendar on official documents, including on the Act that abolished it, signed on 22 Fructidor (Hazlenut) in the year XIII (or 9 September 1805). From ‘The genus rosa’ by Ellen Willmott, 1934. Also types of stone and minerals, because there’s not much to harvest in the ex-month of January except rocks.ġ Floreal (20 April) represented by a rose. One day each week was named after an agricultural tool, another a common animal, with the remaining eight named after the trees, flowers, and produce in that season. To celebrate the rural economy and reflect its importance to the lives of French people, a new day-naming system was devised, which conveniently also had the effect of offering an alternative to the Catholic Church’s calendar of saints and feast days.
Life for many French peasants improved as the estates were broken up and harvest taxes ended. However, about two thirds of French people were employed in agriculture, and the Revolution had, in part, been caused by problems with land concentrated in the hands of nobles and the Church, feudalism, and food shortages. Officially the 10 days of the week were numeric, which is boring but functional. The months were given new names inspired by nature, for example ‘meadow’ (May to June), and the weather in Paris, which meant that some of the winter month names such as ‘snowy’ (December to January) and ‘frosty’ (February to March) probably weren’t all that reflective of life on the Mediterranean coast, and certainly weren’t for the French overseas territories. From Thomas Bewick from ‘A General History of Quadrupeds’ by Ralph Beilby, 1807. 25 Pluviôse (13 February), represented by a hare.
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