The French Republican Calendar
The republican calendar was installed during the French Revolution on november 24th 1793 by the consul Bonaparte.
It began on september 22nd 1792.
After little more than 13 years, it has been abolished again by the same Bonaparte, by this time emperor Napoleon I. In article 4 of the imperial decrete of 24 fructidor an XIII was stated that from the day after 10 nivôse an XIV, the gregorian calendar was used again in France, continuing with January 1st 1806.
The year in republican calendar always began on the day of autumn equinox (sept. 22nd or 23rd). It was divided into 12 months :
Each month was divided into 3 decades of 10 days each. The days where called
primidi, duodi, tridi, quartidi, quintidi,
sextidi, septidi, octodi, nonidi, decadi.
After the end of Fructidor, 5 complementary days, not belonging to any of the months, where added to wait for the new equinox.
These complementary days where intended to celebrate the revolution festivities. Four years of 365 days were called a "Franciade", which was terminated by an additional 6th complementary day, called Jour de la Révolution. This 6th day was at the end of An III, VII and XI.
As it is rather annoying to calculate the correspondences between republican and gregorian calendars, you'll find a date converter here.
I have programmed it in JavaScript, so be sure to have this function enabled on your browser.
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