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Eliminating Religion from Daily Life with the Revolutionary Calendar of France

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During the revolutionary era in France, in which the National Convention took control of revolutionary France, a new calendar was adopted. This revolutionary calendar was implemented in November of 1793, in an attempt to replace the Gregorian calendar completely. The National Convention adopted a new calendar in France at the time of a revolution in an attempt to increase the number of work days on peasants and reduce the influence of Christianity throughout the country; however most of the general public as well as government officials reacted negatively. One major reason as of why the revolutionary calendar was put into effect was in order to eliminate religion from daily life. The traditional Gregorian calendar was originally…show more content…
However because this article was written under Napoleon I, and from the perspective of people who did not agree with the calendar the article may be very biased. Another reason for the adoption of a new calendar is that the government did not want religion to determine the lives of the French people. According to Pierre-Joseph, the Jacobins were attempting to rid France of religion and the old order by replacing it with Deism (Document eight). With the incorporation of deism into everyday life people could focus more on reason, being less influenced by religion. However, because Pierre-Joseph was a Girondin he was very opposed to the views of the Jocobins, so of course he believed the removal of religion from French society to have negative impacts. Less religious aspects in everyday life would allow the French people to be more productive by reducing their time to worship, in turn giving them more time to work. The revolutionary calendar sought out to improving productivity among the peasantry. The National Convention stated that the Gregorian calendar had too many religious holidays. One of the complaints in the Cahier de Doleances included the limitation on the number of religious holidays so that the so called "great people" were no longer a disadvantage to the state (Document one). In order to make the French people more productive there needed to be a reduction in the
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