
Celebrating Bastille Day

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Continue reading “Summer Simulated Shelves”Julie Patricia Johnson is an associate researcher at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of The Candle and the Guillotine: Revolution and Justice in Lyon, 1789–93, published by Berghahn Books. She has presented her research at international conferences and has published work in journals such as French History and Lilith: A Feminist History Journal.
Continue reading “An Interview with Julie Patricia Johnson”Celebrated on July, 14, Bastille Day is the French national day and one of the most important bank holidays in France. The day commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution with the storming of the Bastille on the 14th July 1789, a medieval fortress and prison which was a symbol of tyrannical Bourbon authority and had held many political dissidents, and symbolizes the end of absolute monarchy and the birth of sovereign Nation.
The following year, the Fête de la Fédération was held in Paris and across the nation by a populace that largely believed the French Revolution was over. As it turned out, they were mistaken–and by 1791 there was little in the way of national unity to celebrate. The holiday wasn’t picked up again until 1878 when it was a one-time official feast to honor the French Republic, which was followed by an unofficial, popular celebration of the day in 1879, which in turn led to a call to make it an official holiday in 1880 complete with a military parade which has been an annual fixture ever since.