Explain the reasons for the adoption of a new calendar in revolutionary France and analyze reactions to it in the period 1789 to 1806.

The adoption of the revolutionary calendar to replace the Gregorian calendar took place on November 24, 1793 by the National Convention. This new calendar lasted until Napoleon I abolished it in 1806. The new calendar was a adopted in revolutionary France for many reasons including secular ideas and political reasons. There were also many reactions to the change of calendar between 1789 and 1806 such a criticism.

There were many secular-slanted ideas that were adopted into the new calendar during revolutionary france. In 1789, the Cahier de doléances (report of grievances), from the Third …show more content…

Until the new calendar was abolished by Napoleon I in 1806, it received a lot of criticism. Pierre-Joseph Denis, a former Girondin imprisoned during the Terror and then recalled to the National Convention, wrote in Opinion on the Decades that the new calendar was an act of despotism forced on the people, and the festivals based on it were detestable. Denis is criticizing the new calendar because he thinks that it was unfair that the new calendar was forced upon them (Document 8). François-Sebastien Letourneux, Minister of Interior, criticized the new calendar because he thinks that the interval between days of rest is too long. Letourneux said that the artisan and farmer can not work nine days in a row (Document 9). In an article in Gazette de France, it talks about the return to the Gregorian calendar. It says that the new calendar was so weak that when it fell, it didn't even offer us an opportunity to exclaim about the fragility of human things. The article also says that it was sad that the names of the festivals were not not devoted to the benefactors of humanity, but were devoted to the cabbages, the turnips, and the artichoke (Document 11). Abbé Sieyès wrote in response to