The French Revolution : The French Republican Calendar

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The French Republican Calendar (French: calendrier républicain français) or French Revolutionary Calendar (calendrier révolutionnaire français) was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution (During Reign of Terror), and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871. The revolutionary system was designed in part to remove all religious and royalist influences from the calendar, and was part of a larger attempt at decimalisation in France (which also included decimal time of day, decimalisation of currency, and metrication).

The new calendar was created by a commission under the direction of the politician Charles-Gilbert Romme seconded by Claude Joseph Ferry and Charles-François Dupuis. 

They associated with their work the chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, the mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange, the astronomer Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande, the mathematician Gaspard Monge, the astronomer and naval geographer Alexandre Guy Pingré, and the poet, actor and playwright Fabre d'Églantine, who invented the names of the months, with the help of André Thouin, gardener at the Jardin des Plantes of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. As the rapporteur of the commission, Charles-Gilbert Romme presented the new calendar to the Jacobin-controlled National Convention on 23 September 1793, which adopted it on 24 October 1793 and also extended it proleptically to its epoch of 22 September 1792. It is because of his position as rapporteur of the commission that the creation of the republican calendar is attributed to Romme.

The Republican calendar year began the day the autumnal equinox occurred in Paris, and had twelve months of 30 days each, which were given new names based on nature, principally having to do with the prevailing weather in and around Paris.

• Autumn:
• Vendémiaire in French (from Latin vindemia, "grape harvest"), starting 22, 23, or 24 September
• Brumaire (from French brume, "fog"), starting 22, 23, or 24 October
• Frimaire (From French frimas, "frost"), starting 21, 22, or 23 November
• Winter:
• Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, "snowy"), starting 21, 22, or 23 December
• Pluviôse (from Latin pluvius, "rainy"), starting 20, 21, or 22 January
• Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, "windy"), starting 19, 20, or 21 February
• Spring:
• Germinal (from Latin germen, "germination"), starting 20 or 21 March
• Floréal (from Latin flos, "flower"), starting 20 or 21 April
• Prairial (from French prairie, "pasture"), starting 20 or 21 May
• Summer:
• Messidor (from Latin messis, "harvest"), starting 19 or 20 June
• Thermidor (or Fervidor) (from Greek thermon, "summer heat"), starting 19 or 20 July
• Fructidor (from Latin fructus, "fruit"), starting 18 or 19 August

On many printed calendars of Year II (1793–94), the month of Thermidor was named Fervidor. Most of the month names were new words coined from French, Latin, or Greek. The endings of the names are grouped by season. "Dor" means "giving" in Greek.

In Britain, a contemporary wit mocked the Republican Calendar by calling the months: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Hoppy, Croppy and Poppy.

Ten days of the week:

The month is divided into three décades or 'weeks' of ten days each, named simply:

• primidi (first day)
• duodi (second day)
• tridi (third day)
• quartidi (fourth day)
• quintidi (fifth day)
• sextidi (sixth day)
• septidi (seventh day)
• octidi (eighth day)
• nonidi (ninth day)
• décadi (tenth day)

Décades were abandoned in Floréal an X (April 1802).

Leap years in the calendar are a point of great dispute, due to the contradicting statements in the establishing decree stating:

Each year begins at midnight, with the day on which the true autumnal equinox falls for the Paris Observatory.

and:

The four-year period, after which the addition of a day is usually necessary, is called the Franciade in memory of the revolution which, after four years of effort, led France to republican government. The fourth year of the Franciade is called Sextile.

These two specifications are incompatible, as leap years defined by the autumnal equinox in Paris do not recur on a regular four year schedule. Thus, the years III, VII, and XI were observed as leap years, and the years XV and XX were also planned as such, even though they were five years apart.

Rural Calendar:

The Catholic Church used a calendar of saints, which named each day of the year after an associated saint. To reduce the influence of the Church, Fabre d'Eglantine introduced a Rural Calendar in which each day of the year had a unique name associated with the rural economy, stated to correspond to the time of year. Every décadi (ending in 0) was named after an agricultural tool. Each quintidi (ending in 5) was named for a common animal. The rest of the days were named for "grain, pasture, trees, roots, flowers, fruits" and other plants, except for the first month of winter, Nivôse, during which the rest of the days were named after minerals

References:

http://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/french.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar