Editing Bastille Day (section)

===Origin of the current celebration===
[[File:Monet-montorgueil.JPG|thumb|[[Claude Monet]], ''Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of 30 June 1878'']]
On 30 June 1878, a feast was officially arranged in Paris to honour the French Republic (the event was commemorated in a painting by [[Claude Monet]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Adamson|first=Natalie|title=Painting, politics and the struggle for the École de Paris, 1944–1964|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgNGAQAAIAAJ|access-date=13 July 2011|date=15 August 2009|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=978-0-7546-5928-0|page=68}}</ref> On 14 July 1879, there was another feast, with a semi-official aspect. The day's events included a reception in the Chamber of Deputies, organised and presided over by [[Léon Gambetta]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Nord|first=Philip G.|title=Impressionists and politics: art and democracy in the nineteenth century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNSVHrVlGMQC&pg=PA37|access-date=13 July 2011|year=2000|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-20695-2|page=37}}</ref> (a military reviewer at Longchamp), and a Republican Feast in the [[Bois de Boulogne|Pré Catelan]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Nord|first=Philip G.|title=The republican moment: struggles for democracy in nineteenth-century France|url=https://archive.org/details/republicanmoment0000nord|url-access=registration|access-date=13 July 2011|year=1995|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-76271-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/republicanmoment0000nord/page/205 205]}}</ref> All throughout France, ''[[Le Figaro]]'' wrote, "people feasted much to honour the storming of the Bastille".<ref>{{cite news|title=Paris Au Jour Le Jour|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k277157p/f4.image|access-date=15 January 2013|newspaper=Le Figaro|date=16 July 1879|page=4|quote=On a beaucoup banqueté avant-hier, en mémoire de la prise de la Bastille, et comme tout banquet suppose un ou plusieurs discours, on a aussi beaucoup parlé.}}</ref>

In 1880, the government of the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] wanted to revive the 14 July festival. The campaign for the reinstatement of the festival was sponsored by the notable politician [[Léon Gambetta]] and scholar [[Henri Baudrillart|Henri Baudrillant]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Fourteenth of July|last=Prendergast|first=Christopher|publisher=Profile Books Ltd|year=2008|isbn=9781861979391|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fourteenthofjuly0000pren/page/127 127]|url=https://archive.org/details/fourteenthofjuly0000pren/page/127}}</ref> On 21 May 1880, [[Benjamin Raspail]] proposed a law, signed by sixty-four members of government, to have "the Republic adopt 14 July as the day of an annual national festival". There were many disputes over which date to be remembered as the national holiday, including 4 August (the commemoration of the [[The Abolition of Feudalism|end of the feudal system]]), 5 May (when the [[Estates General of 1789|Estates-General]] first assembled), 27 July (the fall of [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]]), and 21 January (the date of [[Louis XVI]]'s execution).<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Fourteenth of July|last=Prendergast|first=Christopher|publisher=Profile Books Ltd|year=2008|isbn=9781861979391|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fourteenthofjuly0000pren/page/129 129]|url=https://archive.org/details/fourteenthofjuly0000pren/page/129}}</ref> The government decided that the date of the holiday would be 14 July, but that was still somewhat problematic. The events of 14 July 1789 were illegal under the previous government, which contradicted the Third Republic's need to establish legal legitimacy.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Fourteenth of July|last=Prendergast|first=Christopher|publisher=Profile Books Ltd|year=2008|isbn=9781861979391|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fourteenthofjuly0000pren/page/130 130]|url=https://archive.org/details/fourteenthofjuly0000pren/page/130}}</ref> French politicians also did not want the sole foundation of their national holiday to be rooted in a day of bloodshed and class-hatred as the day of storming the Bastille was. Instead, they based the establishment of the holiday as both the celebration of the Fête de la Fédération, a festival celebrating the anniversary of the Republic of France on 14 July 1789, and the storming of the Bastille.<ref name="Schofield">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23280120|title=Bastille Day: How peace and revolution got mixed up|last=Schofield|first=Hugh|date=14 July 2013|website=BBC News}}</ref> The Assembly voted in favor of the proposal on 21 May, and 8 June. The law was approved on 27 and 29 June. The celebration was made official on 6 July 1880.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-14 |title=Bastille Day {{!}} Definition, History, Traditions, Celebrations, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bastille-Day |access-date=2023-07-15 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

In the debate leading up to the adoption of the holiday, Senator [[Henri Martin (historian)|Henri Martin]], who wrote the National Day law,<ref name="Schofield"/> addressed the chamber on 29 June 1880:

{{Blockquote|text=Do not forget that behind this 14&nbsp;July, where victory of the new era over the [[Ancien Régime]] was bought by fighting, do not forget that after the day of 14&nbsp;July 1789, there was the day of 14&nbsp;July 1790&nbsp;(...) This [latter] day cannot be blamed for having shed a drop of blood, for having divided the country. It was the consecration of the unity of France&nbsp;(...) If some of you might have scruples against the first 14&nbsp;July, they certainly hold none against the second. Whatever difference which might part us, something hovers over them, it is the great images of national unity, which we all desire, for which we would all stand, willing to die if necessary.|sign=[[Henri Martin (historian)|Henri Martin]], 1880<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130309015033/http://blog.greetingcarduniverse.com/2011/07/le-quatorze-juillet/ Le Quatorze Juillet] at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20090802114707/http://blog.greetingcarduniverse.com/ Greeting Card Universe Blog]</ref>}}