Abstract

In 1880, the French Parliament chose 14 July as the bank holidays, referring to two important events in the history of the French Revolution: on the one hand, the storming of the Bastille during the revolutionary days of July 1789 and, on the other hand, the Fête de la Fédération, which took place one year later to celebrate the birth of the new France, the France built by the Constituent Assembly. The choice of 14 July as the bank holidays expressed the desire of the republican majority of the time to consider the French Revolution as the founding moment of French history, thus wiping out thirteen centuries of Christian history. The annual celebration of this founding myth, from the time of the Revolution, aimed to influence sensibilities in order to transform the individual into a citizen nourished by the values of the Revolution.