Bastille Day is a French national holiday celebrated on July 14th, commemorating the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison and the birth of the French Republic. Celebrations include parades, fireworks, and parties, and the French flag is prominently displayed. The holiday is also known as Fete Nationale and 14 Juillet. The Tour de France coincides with the holiday, and the French president addresses the nation. The holiday was established in the late 1800s to celebrate liberty, equality, and brotherhood.
Bastille Day is an important holiday in France, celebrating the birth of the French Republic and the end of the monarchy. It is typically celebrated with fireworks, parades, dances and parties, and the entire nation regards the day as a national holiday. Francophiles from all over the world often organize celebrations of their own, as a tribute to French history and culture. For Americans, Independence Day would be a comparable holiday.
Alternative names for Bastille Day include Fete Nationale and 14 Juillet. The first is a reference to the idea that Bastille Day is a national holiday, a day on which French citizens should not work. The other is a nod to the date on which Bastille Day falls, July 14th.
Tour de France fans may note that the holiday coincides with the famous cycling race. The festive atmosphere of the race is often greatly heightened on Bastille Day, especially when the French team puts in a lot of effort to tackle that day’s stage of the race.
Commonly, people start celebrating Bastille Day the night before with fireworks and dancing. During the daytime hours of the 14th, it is traditional to see large parades and street parties. The president of France typically addresses the nation on this day, and the party resumes in the evening. As with other patriotic holidays around the world, the French flag is often profusely displayed during the holiday, and various incarnations of the national anthem are sung, hummed, or played on an assortment of musical instruments.
The holiday commemorates the 1789 invasion of the Bastille, a notorious French prison. This event was a major catalyst for the French Revolution, as it represented a popular uprising against what was considered an oppressive institution. While the storming of the Bastille ended up having little practical use, it proved a valuable rallying point and was celebrated in 1790 with the Fete de Federation.
Bastille Day celebrations didn’t begin in earnest until the late 1800s, when the French government officially voted to establish a holiday celebrating the French Republic and the values of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Initially, the government proposed June 30. In 1880, two years after the initial proposal, the legislature had decided that July 14 was a more significant date, as it would allow citizens to celebrate an important event in their history.
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