Bastille Day changed the history of France

July 14 was commemorated during the French Revolution and then banned from the calendar. It was instituted as national feast day in 1880. With its parades, dances and fireworks, it has remained a living fete for the people.

There must be a military parade on July 14, even in the age of Europe. The feast of the nation is that of her armed services. When July 14 was adopted as national feast day in 1880, the Third Republic's distribution of new flags to the regiments was a highlight of this first celebration.

Since then, apart from the somber time of the occupation, military parades have always been part of July 14 celebrations, with poignant fervor in 1919 and 1945, the years when peace was won.

But what is the link between the military parades and the storming of the Bastille in 1789? What is the relationship between the impeccable lines of troops and the crowd which rushed to the feudal fortress which had been turned into a royal prison, in order to find the gunpowder and ammunition for the 30,000 guns that had been taken that very morning? It must be remembered that there were two July 14s in the revolution, that of 1789 and that of 1790.

The second one was more than a commemoration of the first. On that day, called the Feast of the Federation, an enthusiastic event gathered together 14,000 members of the national guard who had come from 83 recently created departments, on the Champs de Mars around the alter to the motherland where a mass was celebrated. The unity of the nation was thus asserted by this event. The members of the national guard who took an oath to defend "Liberty, The Constitution and the Law" sealed the union of the people and their armed forces.

The republicans of 1880 fully intended to celebrate both these dates on the national feast day which would be "par excellence the fete of the people as it was the feast of liberty and of the motherland". According to historical circumstances, the emphasis is put on the patriotic or people's aspect or the defense and conquest of liberty. "The fall of the Bastille is the fall of all bastilles," Victor Hugo proclaimed. This conviction was to inspire the bicentenary celebrations, particularly the imaginative parade on the Champs Elysees.

There cannot be a people's celebration without dancing. The crowd danced at the Bastille after its surrender and the Feast of the Federation ended in singing and dancing in the rain.

Nowadays, there is not a single community in France that does not celebrate July 14 without a dance. With firemen's balls, local dances and village hops, dance prevails to all tunes. At night, the streets and squares are filled with music. On the evening before, in the country and a few large towns, a torchlight procession with paper lanterns follows the marching band, in the din and smoke of firecrackers.

July 14 is an occasion for games, tournaments and sporting of folkloric events. The celebrations committee organizes open-air banquets at which local dishes are sometimes replaced by barbecues of lamb roast on the spit which has become a traditional meal for rural festivities. Then, overpowering the sound of the band or the sound system, the fireworks, which are more dazzling than the illuminations, fill eyes with wonder and leave ephemeral traces of their palm shapes, their flaming domes and luminous incandescence, their blazing parasols and incendiary sprays, their rain of fire and their grand finale, in the night sky.