Reading the column on Who decided the day should be divided into 24 hours?, a question came to mind: Where can I find a list of what each day of the year was called under this calendar system? And is it possible, with any simplicity, to translate modern dates into their calendar? I’m particularly eager to find out if my birthday was something as cool as “billy goat” or “manure.” I know it’s possible to translate modern dates into the Mayan calendar, so there must be some way with the revolutionary calendar, right?
Happy 29 Brumaire CCXI !!
Try this site http://www.windhorst.org/calendar/
Thanks for the link, BobT. The hard part was to find what the names were for each individual day. Some googling finally brought me to this site, which (once you find the actual calendar day from Bob’s link) you can find out the day’s specific name.
I lucked out after all: my birthday was bouc, “goat,” (Quntidi Ventôse - 5). But I see that 15 Ventôse is also goat. What is the difference between “bouc” and “chèvre”? In all my years of French, I’d learned the latter as the word for goat (?).
Bouc is a male goat…
How very, very cool… I was born on 1 Sans-culottide, Jour de la vertu!
sans-culottide: from the word sans-culottes (without breeches), a term designating the French revolutionaries that were dressed like working men, trousers instead of foppish aristocratic breeches.
I was born on péche- fish! Cool.
Oh no- novice French mistake- I was actually born on Sin, or Transgression. 22 Vendemiaire.
Oh well, it fits better in any case.
Nope. It’s the translation on the site which is faulty. You were indeed born on the fishing day, not on the sin day.
That’s the same error which sometimes make dishes like “sinner’s soup” appear on the english menu of some french restaurants.
By, the way, I was born on the carp’s day, so, stay away from me…(or perhaps not…depends)