# French revolutionary calendar days **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 21, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872 "2002-11-21T04:04:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872/1 "2002-11-21T04:04:03Z")
Reading the column on [Who decided the day should be divided into 24 hours?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_125.html), 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? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872/2 "2002-11-21T06:17:55Z")
Happy 29 Brumaire CCXI !! Try this site [http://www.windhorst.org/calendar/](http://www.windhorst.org/calendar/) ---
**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872/3 "2002-11-21T07:11:22Z")
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](http://www.kokogiak.com/frc/default.asp), 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 (?). ---
**Author:** ![Tamealien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Tamealien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamealien)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872/4 "2002-11-21T08:06:16Z")
_Bouc_ is a male goat… ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872/5 "2002-11-21T15:41:43Z")
How very, very cool… I was born on 1 Sans-culottide, Jour de la vertu! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872/6 "2002-11-22T03:13:32Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872/7 "2002-11-22T03:30:17Z")
I was born on péche- fish! Cool. ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872/8 "2002-11-22T03:31:43Z")
Oh no- novice French mistake- I was actually born on Sin, or Transgression. 22 Vendemiaire. Oh well, it fits better in any case. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-revolutionary-calendar-days/137872/9 "2002-11-24T22:35:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Melandry \* > \*\*Oh no- novice French mistake- I was actually born on Sin, or Transgression. 22 Vendemiaire. > > \*\* 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)