EASTER MONDAY. Celebrated in France for several centuries, Easter Monday, celebrated on Monday April 10, is a popular festival, both Christian and cultural. Even if it is a public holiday, the majority of major stores will be open on Monday and many outings are to be expected.
[Mis à jour le 6 avril 2023 à 15h50] After a busy Easter weekend for some, comes Easter Monday, Monday April 10, 2023. But if Easter is an important religious holiday for Christians, the Monday that follows does not correspond to anything. Or rather, it is no longer a day of religious celebration as it used to be. Because in the Middle Ages, for example, the whole Easter week was a holiday, including the famous Easter Monday. This tradition ended under Napoleon in France.
In addition to school holidays, this holiday allows many to go on a long weekend or even go shopping. Because not all shops close for Easter. Draw from our file below, ideas for outings for the Easter weekend (it should be noted that many egg hunts are organized on Mondays):
The Easter Monday holiday is a gesture of Napoleon after the concordat. The future emperor chose to end the long Easter period during which the majority of French people were unemployed. From now on, the week following Easter Sunday will no longer be a holiday, only the first Monday will remain, as a sign of compensation and compromise vis-à-vis the Church. Napoleon Bonaparte’s arbitrary decision to keep the second day of the Easter Octave as a public holiday was followed by many European countries, and gradually spread. Easter Monday is thus a public holiday in all European countries, except in Portugal.
Another relic of history, three days before Easter Monday, Good Friday is a public holiday in three departments in eastern France: in Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and in Moselle. For what ? Because in 1892, this part of France, annexed in 1871 by the German Empire, established a Good Friday holiday for all of its territory. This day of rest is not just a tradition, it is now a right enshrined in the Labor Code, in article L3134-13.
Napoleon and the Church: A Conflictual Relationship
Napoleon 1st always maintained conflicting relations with the Church and the papacy. To strengthen his power and seeing the clergy as a threat, Bonaparte will try to submit the religious to the civil power. It is from this will that the concordat was born, supposed to find a balance between the monarchy of divine rights and the anticlericalism which prevailed during the revolution. But the popes who will succeed one another during his reign will take a very dim view of this attempt to submit the Church of France to the State., while she has orders to receive only from Rome. The conflict (and the blockade) with Great Britain and the wars with neighboring monarchies will be other reasons for disagreement.
But what will really break Napoleon’s relations with the papacy remains his attempt to instrumentalize the Church. Napoleon Bonaparte will first negotiate with Pope Pius VII, often presented as a moderate. He even managed to bring him to Paris in 1804, for his imperial coronation, against the advice of the Curia. During the coronation, Napoleon himself will place the crown on his head, refusing that it is Pius VII who crowns him. Historians also tell that Napoleon and his wife Josephine, already married civilly, had only married religiously a few hours earlier, having not seen fit to do so so far. The coronation of Napoleon will be considered a humiliation by the Roman Curia.
Despite several attempts at conciliation from 1804, the two parties moved away from 1806. Many subjects made Napoleon and the Pope irreconcilable, in particular the fact that Rome did not respect the blockade imposed by Napoleon on his enemies. Rome is occupied by the emperor, who was also king of Italy, in 1808. Papal provinces are annexed. Pius VII ends up excommunicating the emperor then will be kidnapped by Lieutenant Radet. The sovereign pontiff becomes a prisoner of Bonaparte. Pius VII, put under house arrest for 6 years, was only released and rehabilitated in 1814, after Napoleon’s defeat. Several historians believe that this conflict with the church hastened his downfall.
In France, since the Concordat, only Easter Monday is a public holiday, and not the whole week. A true symbol of the Christian religion for more than 2,000 years, Easter Monday is associated with the Easter holiday which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus and brings together thousands of faithful from all continents each year. But it is not necessary to be a Christian to feel concerned by the stories of Easter, which evoke the victory of life over chaos.
This pagan festival is not only an opportunity to eat chocolate! To know the reasons for this Christian fervor, but also popular, we must go back a little. The explanation is to be found in the Catholic tradition which has encouraged the French, since the Middle Ages, to celebrate the “Octave of Easter”. It is concretely a period of eight days, beginning on Easter Sunday and ending on Sunday “in albis”, during which the faithful were invited to go to Mass every day to hear the same prayer, that of the Resurrection of Christ.
The repetitive nature of this tradition had a very specific meaning, since it solemnized the Catholic liturgy and reminded everyone that the return of Christ extends beyond the Easter feast. This week was also an opportunity for all those who wished to go to Rome for one of the most important pilgrimages of the year. But after the Revolution, the increasingly pronounced administration of the French State, as well as the demands of the economy, gradually challenged this practice. In 1801, Napoleon decides to legislate on this tradition when establishing the Concordat. The organization of religious practices in France is placed under the authority of the First Consul, the privileges of the Catholic clergy are abolished, Napoleon puts an end to the authority of Rome over the French episcopate.
This key date of the Easter period changes every year and according to the country. In France, this holiday is also called “the eighth day” among believers. The opportunity, whatever the edition, to enjoy a day off, and why not sunny. Associated with the religious holiday of Easter, which it follows by one day, Easter Monday represents one of the 6 public holidays associated with a religious holiday in France, like the days ofascentof the Pentecost or even the Toussaint. It is therefore synonymous each year with a long weekend to enjoy spring. Easter Monday is celebrated on April 10, 2023.