What is July 14 in France and why is it celebrated?

French people traveling or living in English-speaking countries are sometimes surprised when asked about their plans for “July 14”: they call this day Quatorze Juillet (July 14).

France’s National Day is not really about the storming of the Bastille, and the name of the day in English conveys a misleading image. But it gives us an interesting glimpse into how the English-speaking world imagines France’s revolutionary past.

The most common misconceptions about the French National Day are that it is a celebration of the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 and commemorates the official start of the French Revolution.

It’s actually a much more complex story.

While English speakers refer to July 14, in France the day is interwoven with another historic event: the Fête de la Fédération, a mass gathering held on July 14, 1790.

In 1789, the Parisians attacked the Bastille: political prison, symbol of the monarchy and armory. The citizens aimed to seize arms, ammunition and powder to fight the royal troops stationed in the vicinity of Paris.

Thus, the Fête de la Fédération of 1790 was designed to usher in a new era that abolished absolutism and gave birth to a French constitutional monarchy.

Tens of thousands of people from all provinces converged on the Champ-de-Mars in Paris to witness a military parade led by Lafayette, a mass celebrated by Talleyrand, and a collective swearing-in culminating in brief but catchy speeches of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

It was not an annual event: simply a day to announce a period of national unity.

Less than three years later, the heads of the king and queen met the blade of the guillotine and the constitutional monarchy was replaced by the First Republic.

A date always in motion

France has had many national holidays, each reflecting the politics of its time.

Napoleon I (Emperor from 1804 to 1814) declared that citizens should celebrate August 15: date of his feast and the Assumption of Mary.

Under the Restoration (1814-1830), the regime celebrated its kings in the days of their name: Louis XVIII (1814-1824) on August 25 and Charles X (1824-1830) on May 24.

The July Monarchy (1830-1848) under Louis-Philippe I celebrated his birth in the heat of the “Trois Glorieuses” from July 27 to 29, 1830.

The Second Republic (1848-1852) adopted on May 4, the first meeting of the National Constituent Assembly in 1848. Another new political regime was celebrated once again.

Under the Second Empire (1852-1870), Napoleon III reduced the national holiday of France to August 15: his patronal feast.

In just under a century, France has changed its national holiday half a dozen times.

New symbols for a new era

The disastrous and humiliating defeat France suffered against Prussia in 1871 led to the fall of Napoleon III and the rise of the French Third Republic, which needed its own new symbols.

For nearly 15 years, the conflict opposed the supporters of a monarchy and the supporters of a republican regime. The memory of the French Revolution becomes one of their main battlegrounds, and the choice of a national holiday an object of contestation.

Some advocated July 15, the feast day of the last contender of the Bourbons, Henri, count of Chambord, in the hope of an imminent restoration.

The radicals on the left pushed for January 21, the anniversary of the beheading of Louis XVI in 1793.

Others wanted to celebrate the tennis court oath, which marked France’s break with feudalism on June 20, 1789.

In the spring of 1880, the politician Benjamin Raspail tabled a motion to declare July 14 a national holiday: a date shared between the Fête de la Fédération, symbol of unity for the right and the image turned to the left of the taking of the Bastille.

Thanks to the ambiguity of the date, the motion was proclaimed without specifying which Fourteenth of July was to be commemorated. Raspail’s motion received parliamentary approval on the basis of the Fte link, but the question of meaning remained open.

Bastille Day today

Quatorze Juillet inextricably embodies the curious and conflicting legacy that the French Revolution bears for the French. Beneath the veneer of the celebrations, the question of the intrinsic nature of the Revolution and the achievement of its objectives Liberty, Equality, Fraternity is often relegated to the background.

This is not a day for reflection or politics. It’s a day of quiet family activities and celebrations, adorned with a lavish military parade flaunting French might on the Champs-Elysées. In the evenings, fireworks and popular balls known as the Firefighters Ball are held across the country.

It is the hour of fraternal celebrations, well the ambition of the First Feast of the Foundation. References to the storming of the Bastille are invisible or almost invisible. The Revolution is rarely mentioned in the presidential interview.

The symbols of the Revolution of 1789 are still the subject of contradictory interpretations and public controversies, as the recent movement of yellow vests has shown. It is precisely this carefully nurtured ambiguity of the Fourteenth of July that has made it possible for it to endure as France’s National Day: it can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.

The French can project their own understanding of what is celebrated. They can choose between taking the Bastille and the people; the Fte de la Fédration and the national unity; and all the rest.

Or they can just enjoy a day off and watch the fireworks with their friends and family, without worrying about the complex history of July 14th.

Romain Fathi is a lecturer in history at Flinders University. Claire Rioult is a doctoral candidate in modern history at Monash University. This piece first appeared on The conversation.