What is Bastille Day?
It seems to me that Bastille Day, the French holiday celebrated July 14, is a confused subject for many Americans, judging by a few things I've read and by the fact that I myself didn't know what it was until I got here. The common conception seems to be that it's the French Fourth of July, the French Independence Day. (Afterall, there are fireworks and parades, right?) But independence from whom? No, a French "Independence Day" doesn't make any sense, for France has always been independent. So what is Bastille Day then? July 14, 1789, a large group of Parisians stormed and took over the Bastille prison in eastern Paris where they released prisoners and procured weapons. In itself, it was a somewhat mediocre act because King Louis XVI had already decided to decomission the prison, but in the years that followed with the French Revolution, the taking of the Bastille became the symbol of the victory of the French people and of the fall of monarchy in France. Thus every July 14 since 1790, France celebrates the anniversary of this day that symbolizes the French Revolution.
UPDATE:
Ok so I guess I still didn't have it exactly correct. The storming of the Bastille gets associated with the holiday, but the day officially is la fête de la Fédération, comemorating July 14, 1790, and it became a national holiday in 1880.
Actually just read the wikipedia article damn it:
"Bastille Day is the French national holiday, celebrated on 14 July each year. It is called Fête Nationale (National Holiday) in France. It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the Fête de la Fédération was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French "nation", and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution."
UPDATE:
Ok so I guess I still didn't have it exactly correct. The storming of the Bastille gets associated with the holiday, but the day officially is la fête de la Fédération, comemorating July 14, 1790, and it became a national holiday in 1880.
Actually just read the wikipedia article damn it:
"Bastille Day is the French national holiday, celebrated on 14 July each year. It is called Fête Nationale (National Holiday) in France. It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the Fête de la Fédération was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French "nation", and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution."