Tuesday 22 September 2020

primidi vendémiaire

Coinciding with the autumnal equinox for the Northern Hemisphere of that year and derived from the Occitan term for grape harvester, this date in 1792 on the French Revolutionary Calendar (see previously) marked the first day and décade of the new system of time-keeping for the Republic—the month corresponded with the season of the vintage of northern France’s wine producing areas. In following years, the new year was proceeded by five or six epagomenical days (jours épagomènes) called the Sansculottides, ending the summer quarter and aligning the calendar with the tropical year and named for the partisans “without knee-breeches” that underpinned the uprising and overthrow of the Ancien Régime.