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Born out of revolutionary zeal in 1793, the French Republican Calendar was an ambitious attempt to ditch the old-world rhythms of monarchy and religion. It aimed to align daily life with reason, nature, and secular ideals — Enlightenment thinking on a clock.

The year was split into 12 months of 30 days, each named after the natural world — Vendémiaire (grape harvest), Floréal (flowers), and so on. Leftover days? Those were for parties — festivals of virtue, labor, and liberty.

Forget Sunday rest: weeks were now 10-day stretches called décades. Saint names were swapped for plants, animals, and tools — a tribute to everyday life and revolutionary values.

Brilliant on paper, baffling in practice — the calendar never quite caught on. Confusion reigned, and by 1806, Napoleon quietly scrapped it. Still, it lives on as a quirky, bold relic of a time when people tried to reinvent time itself.