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Religious festivals still dominate the French
holiday calendar. Easter, Ascension Day, Pentecost, Assumption Day,
All Saints' Day and Christmas are celebrated with church services and
sometimes religious processions. Many people spend these days quietly
with their families. On All Saints' Day, some people visit the graves
of their relatives, bringing flowers and spending time tidying up the
grave site. In some French towns and cities, people celebrate Mardi Gras, the period just before the beginning of Lent. Lent is traditionally a time of self-denial and penitence in preparation for Easter. Before this sombre period, people celebrate with parties, dances, parades and, in the south of France, bullfights. |
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Bastille Day is France's national day. It commemorates
an important event during the French Revolution. On July 14, 1789, angry
citizens stormed the Bastille, a Paris prison that symbolized royal injustice.
Today, Bastille Day is celebrated with national parades, bonfires and fireworks
across the country. People dance in the streets or watch military parades.
On Bastille Day, 2000, a continuous picnic table was constructed across
France from north to south, and French people across the country sat down
together to enjoy a feast. Labour Day is another day of national celebration. Trade union parades mark the event and remind French people of the progress that has been made in improving conditions for workers. |
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Two special days are set aside to remember those who
died in the First and Second World Wars. November 11, Remembrance Day,
commemorates the day that the Armistice was signed between the Allies
and Germany in 1918. This signing took place in France, in the forest
of Compiègne, northeast of Paris. May 8, known as VE (Victory
in Europe) Day, marks the end of the Second World War in 1945.
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