[net.nlang] French Revolutionary Calendar

putnam@steinmetz.UUCP (jefu) (12/31/85)

In article <1287@ihuxn.UUCP> gadfly@ihuxn.UUCP (Gadfly) writes:

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>JE MAINTIENDRAI   ***** *****
>                 ****** ******  16 Dec 85 [26 Frimaire An CXCIV]
>ken perlow       *****   *****             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>(312)979-7753     ** ** ** **	            
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Do you have a program to convert dates to the french revolutionary 
calendar?  If so, could you mail me a copy?  (I tried to mail this, 
but think my mail got swallowed by a black hole).

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alan@idec.stc.co.uk (Alan Spreadbury) (01/06/86)

The idea of having ten-day 'decades' to confuse the opposition (i.e. the
religious establishment of the day) reminds me that Napoleon was said to
have made his troops march on the right to confuse the enemy, who, of
course, kept to the left (as civilised countries still do (-:)).
Incidentally, I calculate 16 Dec 1985 as being 25 Frimaire 194; I wonder 
whether the one-day difference is due to non-leap century years. There
have been two in our calendar (1800 and 1900), but only one in the
revolutionary one (100) since 1792, hence I calculate the revolutionary
year as currently starting on 23 Sept.

dik@zuring.UUCP (Dik T. Winter) (01/07/86)

In article <565@idec.idec.stc.co.uk> alan@idec.stc.co.uk (Alan Spreadbury) writes:
>Incidentally, I calculate 16 Dec 1985 as being 25 Frimaire 194; I wonder 
>whether the one-day difference is due to non-leap century years. There
>have been two in our calendar (1800 and 1900), but only one in the
>revolutionary one (100) since 1792, hence I calculate the revolutionary
>year as currently starting on 23 Sept.

In the French revolutionary calendar there is no simple algorithm to
calculate leap years.  Leap years are every 4 or 5 years depending on
the actual start of autumn.  The calendar had been precalculated for
some 20 years or something like that.  Hence a discussion whether
16 Dec 1985 is 25 Frimaire 194 or not is a bit futile.
-- 
dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland
UUCP: {seismo,decvax,philabs,okstate,garfield}!mcvax!dik

gadfly@ihuxn.UUCP (Gadfly) (01/09/86)

--
> Incidentally, I calculate 16 Dec 1985 as being 25 Frimaire 194; I wonder 
> whether the one-day difference is due to non-leap century years. There
> have been two in our calendar (1800 and 1900), but only one in the
> revolutionary one (100) since 1792, hence I calculate the revolutionary
> year as currently starting on 23 Sept.

It's not clear how leap centuries were to be handled, indeed if they
were to be handled at all.  That is, I could find no mention of this
correxion in any histories of the French Revolution.  It is
reasonable to assume, however, that the Convention picked up the
leap-century correxion since it also picked up leap years.  But
since the French Revolutionary Calendar used 4n+3 leap years, the
non-leap centuries may have been similarly skewed.  I shall recheck
my algorithm, and since there seems to be some interest, post it
to net.sources.
-- 
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JE MAINTIENDRAI   ***** *****
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ken perlow       *****   *****
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..ihnp4!iwsl8!ken   *** ***