Excerpt from Beware Madame la Guillotine, the Time Traveler Tours iteractive StoryApp tour to the French Revolution with tour guide, Charlotte Corday, Murderess, to be released June 2011 for iPhone and iPod Touch.
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When the Jacobins took control of the National Convention, they attempted to wipe out all systems that could be associated with the former monarchy, the Ancien Régime, or with the Catholic Church, such as the seven-day week starting and ending on the day of prayer. The Jacobins sought to base their new systems either in nature, or in multiples of 10, and using only Latinate names. One example of these efforts is the Republican Calendar.
The first day of France’s ‘Republican Era’ began the day after the National Convention abolished the Monarchy on 21 September 1792. There were twelve months in the Republican Calendar, and three months for each season. Each season was divided into three ten-day weeks.
The names of the Republican months used Latin words to describe the natural conditions corresponding to that time. The three months of winter, for example, were named: Nivôse, meaning ‘snowy’; Pluvôse, or ‘rainy’; and Ventôse, for ‘windy’. This prompted English critics to mock the calendar by calling the months: Wheezy, Sneezy, and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy, and Nippy; Showery, Flowery, and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty, and Sweety.
Republican Days were divided into 10 hours, each with 100 minutes that were further divided into 100 seconds. This made the Republican hour almost twice as long as a conventional hour. Clocks were manufactured to reflect this use of decimal time, but the system never really caught on.
After about 12 conventional calendar years, Emperor Napoléon finally did away with the Republican Calendar starting on 1 January 1806.