DBQ: R​EVOLUTIONARY ​CA

​ LENDAR 
 
The Gregorian calendar has existed for centuries. Its seven-day week was adopted to fit 52 weeks in the 
365 day year. This system gave people rest on weekends to take a break and worship God. In 1793, the National 
Convention decided to adopt a 10-day work week to go along with the newly adopted metric system. The new 
controversial 10-day-a-week calendar offered a nine-day work week. The years would all be based on the 
founding date of the French republic. ​The revolutionary calendar not only extended the workweek but reduced 
the number of holidays. These new unconventional changes faced harsh criticism by peasants and enemies of 
the revolution. The calendar negatively affected the country’s sociocultural state, religion, and traditions. 
 
The reign of terror brought about uncertainty among the French people. Robespierre had all of the 
power and could kill anyone at any time without reason. He came up with a way he thought would create 
stability to religion in the revolutionary period. The cult of the supreme being was created as a new religion, led 
by Robespierre. Robespierre was overthrown by the fear of the people, but his ideas lived on. The revolutionary 
calendar, an homage to his cult was brought forth as a way for the Jacobin political club to assume arbitrary 
despotism. Document 1 outlines a statement made by the third estate that asks for the reduction of religious 
holidays that promoted idleness. The ruling class in the evolution, the third estate, which made up a majority of 
the population was lead by the national assembly. The following document represents the view of the assembly 
to reduce holidays. In Document 2, the National Convention calendar reform committee declares that the 
Gregorian calendar was made by ignorant people. The committee wants to reform the calendar by making New 
Year’s Day the autumnal equinox. These documents show to demonstrate the power of the ruling third class, 
which claims to bring equality. In opposition, Document 8 is written by a Girondin who has imprisoned 
during the reign of terror. He explains that the Jacobins are still carrying out Robespierre’s principles by forcing 
the people to conform to the new religion. Robespierre essentially creates a religion to assimilate revolutionary 
power and exercise control. In King Henry VIII’s case, he created a new church that was nearly identical to the 
Catholic church to divorce his wife without being financially controlled by the Pope. The Girondins, a more 
conservative branch of the Jacobin political party were hunted during the reign of terror. After Robespierre was 
killed, many Girondins were released and continued to oppose the radical, left-wing Jacobin regime. Document 
10 explains how people pay no respect to the 10th-day celebration in republic temples. It is seen as an action 
against the Republicans. The temple has no value to the revolution and does not convey any revolutionary 
ideals of liberty, equality, or the republic. Even government officials comment on how the republican temples 
are essentially the same as churches under the monarchial regime. The disparity in views about the revolutionary 
religion and lack of conformity among the people has created an apparent divide in the republic and the people. 
 
The social changes brought about by the revolutionary calendar were very impactful. The Gregorian 
calendar was practiced by all of Europe, except for France. Document 3 explains that the practice of following 
the 7-day calendar in engrained in European culture. All of the past tradition of following the calendar would be 
too hard to overcome, almost as if establishing a new way of living. The 10-day system was highly unfavoured by 
the laboring class. Peasants already worked long hours of continuous labour. To extend the workweek to 9 days 
would be outrageous in this respect. The tenth day of the workweek is the rest day filled with prayer and Mass. 
In Document 9, The minister of the interior calls the calendar system of the officials. This is partly due to the 
fact that the people despise the calendar and refuse to accept it’s traditions. He says that the opposition against 
  

the calendar is made up of lazy people and that grateful citizen appreciates the reduced numbers of rest days. 
This appears to be a form of propaganda. A similar concept to Donald Trump who tweets on behalf of a family 
saying that the lack of a border wall has a direct correlation to a murder by an undocumented immigrant. The 
tweet did not represent the opinion of the victim’s family who decided to take care of an immigrant themselves, 
after the fact. The revolutionary calendar is supposedly based on calculations made by astronomers, who may 
not have been the most accurate at that period of time. The social changes influenced the morale of workers, 
connection with other countries using the Gregorian system, claims to be a reformation of corrupt monarchial 
religion, yet provides no reform, just confusion and oppression. 
 
 
The use of the imperial system was dated in Europe. The new metric system was difficult to implement 
but made measurement far easier. The National Convention brought up the concept of creating a new 
measurement of time, weights and measure that were more exact, contrary to the imperial system which 
evidently caused systematic difficulty for the general population. Which the metric system may have been 
beneficial for measurement, the calendar was nearly impossible to integrate. Document 5 presents a new 
division of the year and the presentation of the metric system. It was meant to be more precise and simple, to be 
an embodiment of the revolution. In our present time. Canada mainly uses the metric system for speed and 
measurement and weight with a few exceptions. The United States still uses the more outdated imperial system 
of measurement, a more difficult form of measurement. At the moment it would probably cost the U.S. billion 
to convert to the metric system, however, the U.S. is a global superpower and it’s conformity to smaller 
countries is not as important as other countries conforming to the dominant U.S. power. The change to the 
metric system causes a lot of confusion for the general population and the power of the revolutionary calendar 
never took hold. Document 10 describes the moment where Napoleon abolishes the 10-day week. Whereas the 
7th day was recognized as the day God made Earth, the tenth day was weak and made up by humans. The 
weakness of the tenth day was exemplified by its festivals in honour of garden vegetables. The article teases that 
people will mourn the death on the day of the festival of the gourd. By this point in time, years after the 
revolutionary calendar had been introduced, it’s power was non-existent. Napoleon reinstated the Gregorian 
calendar and abolished all of the tradition that came with it. The revolutionary calendar failed to take place 
among society and it’s traditions thrown away. The ongoing traditions of centuries before could not be undone 
without massive social changes in France and the acceptance of the system in other countries; which was highly 
unlikely to happen. 
 
The revolutionary calendar was a didn’t fit into society. The chance of it replacing hundreds of years of 
tradition was unlikely. The socialistic state of the revolutionary regime at the time tried to enforce too big of a 
change without good reasoning for the change. The uncertainty of the reign of terror was replaced by the 
loathing of the long week and cacophony of political views during the period of the revolutionary calendar. As a 
result, only officials seemed to truly believe in the calendar and it weakened due to the lack of support by the 
third estate. Its failure gave Napoleon a chance to gain public support and revive the Gregorian calendar.