| Bastille
Day is the French national holiday, celebrated on 14 July
each year. In France, it is called Fête Nationale
("National Celebration") in official parlance,
or more commonly le "quatorze juillet" ("14
July"). It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération,
held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille
on 14 July 1789; the anniversary of the storming of the
Bastille fortress-prison was seen as a symbol of the uprising
of the modern nation, and of the reconciliation of all the
French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded
the First Republic, during the French Revolution. Festivities
are held on the morning of 14 July wuth a military parade,
on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front
of the President of the Republic. |
