Bastille Day

 

Bastille Day is the French national holiday, celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is called la Fête Nationale ("National Holiday"), in official parlance, or more commonly "le quatorze juillet" ("14th of July"). It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the storming of the Bastille was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French nation, and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution.

Current festivities

14 July is the French Bastille day, simply called 14 Juillet or less commonly but more officially Fête nationale (though it is generally referred to as Bastille Day in English). Many cities hold fireworks during the night. Many dancing parties are organised (bals du 14 juillet) and it is customary that firefighters organise them (bals des pompiers).

The day celebrates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, though it is often associated, even in France, with the Storming of the Bastille. Military parades, called Défilés du 14 juillet, are held on the morning of 14 July, the largest on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic.

The parade opens with cadets from the(École Polytechnique, Saint-Cyr, École Navale, and so forth), then other infantry troops, then motorised troops; aviation of the Patrouille de France flies above. In recent times, it has become customary to invite units from France's allies to the parade; in 2004 during the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, British troops (the band of the Royal Marines, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, Grenadier Guards and King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery) led the Bastille Day parade in Paris for the first time, with the Red Arrows flying overhead.^[1].

The parade also involves the French Republican Guard, and occasionally (non-military) police units; it always ends with the much-cheered and popular Paris Fire Brigade (which, exceptionally, has military status in France). Traditionally, the students of the École Polytechnique set up some form of joke.

The president used to give an interview to members of the press, discussing the situation of the country, recent events and projects for the future. Nicolas Sarkozy, elected president in 2007, has chosen not to give it. He also holds a garden party at the Palais de l'Elysée.

Bastille Day falls during the Tour de France and is traditionally the day on which French riders try to take a stage victory for France.

Article 17 of the Constitution of France gives the President the authority to pardon offenders, and since 1991 the President has pardoned many petty offenders (mainly traffic offences) on 14 July. In 2007, President Sarkozy declined to continue the practice^[2].

History

The storming of the Bastille

Main article: Storming of the Bastille

On 5 May 1789, Louis XVI convened the Estates-General to hear their grievances. The deputies of the Third Estate representing the common people (the two others were clergy and nobility) decided to break away and form a National Assembly. On 20 June the deputies of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath, swearing not to separate until a constitution had been established. They were gradually joined by delegates of the other estates; Louis started to recognize their validity on 27 June. The assembly re-named itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July, and began to function as a legislature and to draft a constitution.

In the wake of the 11 July dismissal of the royal finance minister Jacques Necker, the people of Paris, fearful that they and their representatives would be attacked by the royal military, and seeking to gain arms for the general populace, stormed the Bastille, a prison which had often held people arbitrarily jailed on the basis of lettre de cachet. Besides holding a large cache of arms, the Bastille had been known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government, and was thus a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy. As it happened, at the time of the siege in July 1789 there were only seven inmates, none of great political significance.

When the crowd (legend says it was organised by descendants of Knights Templars)— eventually reinforced by mutinous gardes françaises — proved a fair match for the fort's defenders, the commander of the Bastille, Governor de Launay capitulated and opened the gates to avoid a mutual massacre. However, possibly because of a misunderstanding, fighting resumed. Ninety-eight attackers and just one defender died in the actual fighting, but in the aftermath, De Launay and seven other defenders were killed, as was the 'prévôt es marchands' (roughly, mayor) Jacques de Flesselles.

The storming of the Bastille was more important as a rallying point and symbolic act of rebellion than a practical act of defiance.

Shortly after the storming of the Bastille, on 4 August feudalism was abolished and on 26 August, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaimed.

The Fête de la Fédération

Main article: Fête de la Fédération

The Fête de la Fédération of the 14 July 1790 was a huge feast and official event to celebrate the uprising of the short-lived constitutional monarchy in France and what people ime considered the happy conclusion of the French Revolution.

The event took place on the Champ de Mars, at the time outside of Paris but now the site of the Eiffel Tower. The place had been transformed voluntarily by the population of Paris in what was recalled as the Journée des brouettes ("Wheelbarrow Day").

A mass was celebrated by Talleyrand, bishop of Autun. The popular General La Fayette, as captain of the National Guard of Paris and confidant of the king, took his oath to the constitution, followed by the King Louis XVI.

After the end of the official celebration, the day ended in a huge four-day popular feast.

Origin of the present holiday

On 30 June 1878, a feast had been set in Paris by official decision to honour the Republic (the event was immortalised by a painting by Claude Monet). On the 14 July 1879, another feast took place, with a semi-official aspect; the events of the day included a military review in Longchamp, a reception in the Chambre of Deputies, organised and presided by Léon Gambetta, and a Republican Feast in the pré Catelan with Louis Blanc and Victor Hugo. All through France, as Le Figaro wrote on the 16th, "people feasted a lot to honour the Bastille".

On the 21 May 1880, Benjamin Raspail proposed a law to have "the Republic choose the 14 July as a yearly national holiday". The Assembly voted the text on 21 May and 8 June. The Senate approved on 27 and 29 June, favouring 14 July against 4 August (honouring the end of the feudal system on 4 August 1789). The law was made official on 6 July 1880, and the Ministry of the Interior recommended to prefects that the day should be "celebrated with all the brilliance that the local resources allow". Indeed, the celebrations of the new holiday in 1880 were particularly magnificent.

In the debate leading up to the adoption of the holiday, Henri Martin, chairman of the French Senate, addressed that chamber 29 June 1880. "Do not forget that behind this 14 July, where victory of the new era over the ancien régime was bought by fighting, do not forget that after the day of 14 July 1789, there was the day of 14 July 1790. … This [latter] day cannot be blamed for having shed a drop of blood, for having divided the country. It was the consecration of unity of France. … If some of you might have scruples against the first 14 July, they certainly hold none against the second. Whatever difference which might part us, something hovers over them, it is the great images of national unity, which we all desire, for which we would all stand, willing to die if necessary."

References

Bastille Day celebrations

• New York City has a large Bastille Day celebration each year on 60th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan
• San Francisco has a large celebration in the downtown historic French quarter.
• Philadelphia's Bastille Day, held at Eastern State Penitentiary, involves Marie Antoinette throwing "cake", which are actually Twinkies, at the Parisian militia and storming the Bastille.^[3]
• Milwaukee's four-day Bastille Days street festival begins with a "Storming of the Bastille" with a 43-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower.
• Seattle's Bastille Day Celebration, held at the Seattle Center, involves performances, picnics, wine and shopping.

One Time Celebrations

• 1989 :199 years after the fête, France celebrates 200th anniversary of French Revolution, notably with a monumental show on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, directed by French designer Jean-Paul Goude. President François Mitterrand hosts world leaders.
• 1998 : Two days after the French football team becomes world champions, huge celebrations took place nationwide
• 2002 : A far-right assassin's bullet misses French president Jacques Chirac during Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.

Bastille Day in media

• "Bastille Day" is a song by the Canadian band Rush from the 1975 album Caress of Steel.
• The White Stripes played their first show on the 14 July 1997 and always reference Bastille Day when referring to their start date.
• "Bastille Day" is an episode title from the television series "Battlestar Galactica."

See also

• Bastille Day Military Parade

External links

• senat.fr Tout savoir sur le 14 Juillet
• Bastille Day in New York 2006]

• Bastille Day in New York 2007]

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