The 365 - dayGregorian calendarwe use today is n’t exactly a chef-d’oeuvre of logic . The months at random have 30 or 31 day ( and then February just does its own matter ) , plus we patch in anextra day every four yearsto make up for the fact that a solar yr is n’t quite 365 days ( it ’s about 365.2422 ) . It ’s all a bit of a mess . That ’s why French Revolutionaries in the late 18th century tossed out the old Christian calendar and designed a radical fresh system : one that was clean , logical , and lay . It did n’t go well .

Known as theFrench Republican calendar , it featured 12 months , each 30 twenty-four hours long and divided into three 10 - 24-hour interval cycles similar to weeks , call décades . The 10 days were named as succeed : primidi , duodi , rdidi , quartidi , quintidi , sextidi , septidi , octidi , nonidi and décadi .

Meanwhile , the months were appoint after innate features tie in with the time of year : Vendémiaire ( “ vintage , ” September 22 to October 21 ) ; Brumaire ( “ mist , ” October 22 to November 20 ) ; Frimaire ( “ Robert Frost , ” November 21 to December 20 ) ; Nivôse ( “ snow , ” December 21 to January 19 ) ; Pluviôse ( “ rain , ” January 20 to February 18 ) ; Ventôse ( “ wind , ” February 19 to March 20 ) ; Germinal ( “ seedtime , ” March 21 to April 19 ) ; Floréal ( “ blossom , ” April 20 to May 19 ) ; Prairial ( “ meadow , ” May 20 to June 18 ) ; Messidor ( “ crop , ” June 19 to July 18 ) ; Thermidor ( “ heating , ” July 19 to August 17 ) ; and Fructidor ( “ fruits , ” August 18 to September 16 ) .

This was a clean disruption from the Gregorian naming custom , where each Clarence Shepard Day Jr. name and month are often relate with a specific ethereal soundbox or god , reflecting Christian and ancient tradition . or else , the new calendar align with the subversive ' desire to make a social system that was free from organized religion and dusty old custom , but celebrate reason and science .

On September 21 , 1792 , or Year I as it was soon to be known , the monarchy was abolished and the French First Republic was extol . The next year , while the head teacher of the monarchy and clergy were literally commence to roll , the National Convention declare the state was officially moving to the French Republican calendar .

As you ’ve probably guessed , the calendar was n’t a lasting winner . Under Napoleon , it was gradually desert and officially supplant by the Gregorian calendar on January 1 , 1806 .

One of the biggest trouble was coordinate with other body politic still using the Gregorian calendar . It was n’t so easy organize a meeting for Saturday , February 21 , 1795 , when your French counterpart was tattle about Year III 3 Pluviôse .

what is more , it shin to gain pop acceptation within the state . It would n’t be too difficult to convince a gang of ideologically charged radical in Paris , but many people in wider France held onto their religious opinion and custom , despite the revolutionary fever of the time .

“ The meliorist must have underrate the deepness to which religious sentiments were still root among the French people , many of whom belike find it impossible to depart so abruptly from a traditionally sacred symbolic order which had been taken for cede for hundred , ” Eviatar Zerubavel , a professor of sociology at Rutgers University , wrote in a1977 paperabout the calender .

The failure of the Gallic Republican calendar also goes to show how difficult it is to sway habits that are deeply baked into a culture . After all , the English name of weekdays still have close tie-in to pre - Christian Norse mythology , like Wednesday ( Woden ’s Day ) , Thursday ( Thor ’s Day ) , and Friday ( Frigg ’s Day ) .

you could decapitate a king , ransack the churches , and declare a novel class I , but custom , ritual , and corporate habit often displume hard than dry logic .