National Holidays


Name Date Notes
New Years' Day January 1
Equality Day January 21 Commemorates the execution of Louis XVI by the French people (1793)
Victory Day March 15 Commemorates the French victory in the French Wars > Fifth French War (1892-5)
Easter Monday Floating
Workers Day April 23 Commemorates the Aix-la-Chapelle > Cour de Katche riot (1877)
Constitution Day May 3 Commemorates the Glorious Reform (1824) of the French Constitution
Joan of Arc Day May 30 Commemorates the martyrdom (1431) of French national hero Joan of Arc
Bastille Day July 14 Commemorates the Storming of the Bastille (1789)
Reunion Day August 10 Commemorates the Storming of the Tuileries (1792)
Mother's Day August 15 Still often known as Assumption Day, as it was known prior to the Amendments to the Concordat (1857)
Republic Day September 22 Commemorates the Declaration of the French Republic (1792)
Veterans Day October 3 Commemorates the end of the French Wars > Fourth French War (1880-4)
All Saints' Day November 1
Christmas December 25
Second Day of Christmas December 26 Still often known as St. Stephen's Day, as it was known prior to the Amendments to the Concordat (1857)

Equality Day

-regarded as somewhat garish to celebrate an execution

-but nevertheless has a fair amount of significance beyond that

-celebrates equality of the nation in general

Workers Day

-the Cour de Katche riot was hallmark of labor movement and commemorated

-made official by Heads of France > 1898-1901 Alexandre Bourgeois (Social Radical - Association of Workers and Peasants coalition)

Constitution Day

-commemorates the amendment to the French constitution bringing France farther along the road to democracy

-instituted by Heads of France > 1824-1836 Bernard-Francois de Chauvelin (Coppetard) †

-to commemorate the Coppetards' rise to power

Joan of Arc Day

-long revered by French people as symbol of the nation

-but renewed by Country folders/France/Area/Religion > Independent Catholicism in France, which makes her their leading saint

Bastille Day

-chief national day of France

-world-famous military parade on this day

Mother's Day

-idea of motherhood strengthened by France being constantly at war

-idea that Assumption Day represents some sort of general motherhood strengthened by this

-and as part of secularizing reforms Assumption Day turned to Mother's Day

Veterans Day

-instituted with military defeat of French Wars > Fourth French War (1880-4)

-to provide for memoriam of dead not only of this war but of all wars