Bastille Day
Saturday July 14, 2007
On 14 July, France celebrates its national holiday in commemoration of the storming of the Bastille prison, which took place in 1789 and marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Do you know what this event represents? Learn all about Bastille Day - in French or English - and listen to the Marseillaise.
What English speakers call Bastille Day the French call le 14 juillet. If you want to wish French speaker a happy Bastille Day, « Bonne Bastille ! » just doesn't work; you can only say « Joyeux Quatorze Juillet ! » However, it's not really customary to do so.
+ Bastille Day history, flag, and related links
+ Article sur le Quatorze Juillet
+ Bastille Day vocabulary
+ Celebrate à la française
+ Bastille Day in Santa Barbara, CA
+ Bastille Day ideas for French teachers
What English speakers call Bastille Day the French call le 14 juillet. If you want to wish French speaker a happy Bastille Day, « Bonne Bastille ! » just doesn't work; you can only say « Joyeux Quatorze Juillet ! » However, it's not really customary to do so.
+ Bastille Day history, flag, and related links
+ Article sur le Quatorze Juillet
+ Bastille Day vocabulary
+ Celebrate à la française
+ Bastille Day in Santa Barbara, CA
+ Bastille Day ideas for French teachers
Comments
From your article on Bastille Day:
“On the one-year anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, delegates from every region of France proclaimed their allegiance to a single national community during the Fête de la Fédération in Paris - the first time in history that a people had claimed their right to self-determination.”
Umm, July 4, 1776??????
I am not a historian, but here are some sources which I feel support my claim:
Human Development Report 2000 Background Paper
http://hdr.undp.org/docs/publications/background_papers/Vizard2000.html
In France, the ideals and principles of the Revolution were marred by the violation of human rights during the subsequent “Terror”. Nevertheless, the break with traditional ideas of the absolute rule of kings and divine right, and of privilege, rank and hierarchy, inaugurated a new period in human history. The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) recognised fundamental individual rights and freedoms, and declared these to be the basis of government. The Declaration unleashed an unprecedented debate about the nature and scope of human rights. New ideas and movements relating to the rights of free black people, the abolition of slavery, economic and social rights, the position of women, national independence and the idea of self-determination, were born and established in this period.
On People’s Human Rights
http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/1365.html
The modern history of human rights for “the people” began with the American Independence Revolution and French Revolution. The Declaration of Independence, which was issued in July 1776, asserted the right of the people to resist, to alter or to abolish their government. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in France, issued in August 1789, incorporated Jean Rousseau’s theory of popular sovereignty as a provision in its Article 3: “The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation.” This article is a manifestation of an oppressed citizenry’s right to self-determination in opposition against tyranny. In May 1790, French Constituent Assembly issued a series of laws related to people’s rights.
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In my opinion, the Declaration of Independence did not explicitly state the right of the American people to self-determination; thus my claim that France was the first country to do so.
Dave just got pwned.