Bastille Day: The History of its Celebration

Bastille Day is an important day for the French, embodying the fighting spirit of a people united against tyranny. Of course, the national holiday commemorates the storming of the Bastille, when the people of Paris rose up and captured the political prison on July 14, 1789. Today, the French and people around the world celebrate Bastille Day, and the story of how this day was adopted by the French is an interesting one.

The first celebration of the storming of the Bastille was actually on July 14th 1790, only one year after the event. At a relatively calm point in the revolution, the people celebrated a "Fête de la Fédération" (festival of the federation) to signify the unity and peace of France one year after the historic flash point. Of course in retrospect, nobody could predict how bloody and long the revolution would be, but it still seems a little ironic that the French would be celebrating peace so early!

When exactly did July 14th become the official symbol of French nationalism that we know today? The first celebration of Bastille Day after the revolution was on July 14 1879, when the government sponsored military exercises and feasts in for the Republic officials. The daily paper, Le Figaro, wrote, "people feasted much to honor the storming of the Bastille." This was not, however, the first time the government had sponsored a national holiday. A year before, on June 30, 1878, a huge feast in Paris was arranged to honor the French Republic. Claude Monet's famous painting, Rue Montorgueil, captured the nationalistic fervor of Paris that day.

Rue Montorgueil (1878), Claude Monet

The next year in June 1880, Benjamin Raspail proposed a law to make July 14 an official national holiday of France. Interestingly, the French Senate almost changed the date to August 4th instead to honor the end of the feudal system in France on August 4th 1789. What a different symbol that would have been!

The Storming of the Bastille, a symbol of defiance, force, independence, and solidarity, made perfect sense for the France of the 1880s. Swept up the nationalistic fervor, France was always looking to unite its people under one nation. In the Senate debate leading up to the adoption of the holiday, Henri Martin, chairman of the Senate, summarized the sentiment: "Whatever difference which might part us, something hovers over them: it is the great images of national unity... for which we would all stand, willing to die if necessary."

Today, the annual Bastille Day military parade continues this tradition of nationalism. The parade has been held on the morning of July 14 every year almost without exception since 1880. Throughout its history, the parade has been used to not only illustrate French solidarity and military strength but also as a tool of diplomacy. During the colonial period before world war II, Algerian and Moroccan units joined the ranks of the French during the parade; in 2010, units from these freed African colonies marched to celebrate fifty years of independence. In 2002, surviving US NYPD officers marched in the wake of 9/11. In 2014, to commemorate the centennial of the First World War, dancers from the eighty participant countries performed a spectacle at the Place de la Concorde. 

Algerian Spahis

Infantry of the French Republic Guards

Another traditional celebration on Bastille Day is the fireworks show at the Eiffel Tower.

As we approach Bastille Day this year, it is important to remember how the French have taken this event, representing defiance and freedom, and shaped it to strengthen their own national unity and identity. By looking to the past, we can see a little more clearly what Bastille Day represents to France today.