UNUSUAL CALENDAR DATES

We have found some interesting dates in the records we are preparing to be filmed. We are working with records from around 100 years ago.

We found dates with a number for part of the month and then an added "bre".

Example: September (Septembre in French) is 7bre as Sept stands for seven – even though it is the ninth month. The same is true of October (Octobre in French) which is 8bre, November (Novembre in French) 9bre and December (Decembre in French) Xbre.

Sometimes the year is written in this interesting way. They write 1880 neuf – which is 1889 (neuf is French for 9) or sometimes 1800 trente quatre – which is 1834. They, of course, also do it the regular way, but this is an interesting variation.

After the revolution, they decided to make their own calendar and for a short time they used the following:

The Republican calendar year began at the autumn equinox and had twelve months of 30 days each, which were given new names based on nature:

Autumn:
Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, "grape harvest") Starting Sept 22, 23 or 24
Brumaire (from French brume, "fog") Starting Oct 22, 23 or 24
Frimaire (From French frimas, "frost") Starting Nov 21, 22 or 23

Winter:
Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, "snowy") Starting Dec 21, 22 or 23
Pluviôse (from Latin pluvius, "rainy") Starting Jan 20, 21 or 22
Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, "windy") Starting Feb 19, 20 or 21

Spring:
Germinal (from Latin germen, "germination") Starting Mar 20 or 21
Floréal (from Latin flos, "flower") Starting Apr 20 or 21
Prairial (from French prairie, "pasture") Starting May 20 or 21

Summer:
Messidor (from Latin messis, "harvest") Starting Jun 19 or 20
Thermidor (or Fervidor) (from Greek thermon, "summer heat") Starting Jul 19 or 20
Fructidor (from Latin fructus, "fruit") Starting Aug 18 or 19

They finally came to discover that it was difficult to be out of step with the rest of the world and therefore changed back. It makes some interesting research to figure out what the dates are and to convert them to our calendar.