In this month of May saturated with bridges, public holidays first evoke the torpor of long weekends. An approval that should not make us forget their tumultuous history, as Jacqueline Lalouette, professor emeritus at the University of Lille and author of the Holidays. Public holidays and legal holidays in contemporary France (Tallandier, 2010). The historian, who tackles this theme again in her latest book, The republican identity of France(Fayard), returns for L’Express to the quarrels caused by these days off.
L’Express: Has the establishment of public holidays always met with consensus, or has it been contested in certain cases?
Jacqueline Lalouette: Without even going back to the Ancien Régime, during which there were dozens of religious holidays (see La Fontaine’s fable, The cobbler and the financier), public holidays have a long history that can be traced from the Consulate and the First Empire to the present day. Throughout the 19th century, which was a century that was constantly upset from a political point of view (two Empires, two constitutional monarchies, three Republics), public holidays kept varying because they were linked to the nature of the regimes . We celebrated the feast of sovereigns (Louis, Charles, Philippe, Napoleon), the anniversaries of memorable events (January 21: the beheading of Louis XVI; July 27, 28 and 29, 1830: the Three Glorious Days; February 24 and May 4, 1848, etc.). These festivals, which displeased political opponents, were suppressed when the political regime that had fixed them collapsed.
The holidays have often raised objections for economic reasons, which is why some of them have not been fixed on their true birthday, but on the preceding or following Sunday, as is still the case for the feast of Jeanne D’Arc. So it was for the feast of November 11. On November 10, 1921, a law fixed the celebration of November 11 on the following Sunday (when this day was not itself a Sunday). In the Chamber, several deputies had argued that “the surviving veterans were workers, peasants who needed to earn a living”, and put forward the need to “rebuild the country”. In the Senate, the rapporteur of the law had asked if it was appropriate to set a new public holiday while the President of the Republic and the President of the Council had called on all French people to “intensive work”. Veterans’ discontent was so great that on October 24, 1922, a new law changed the celebration to November 11, whether that day was a weekday or a Sunday.
It is also for economic reasons that the celebration of May 8 was first fixed for the first Sunday following this date, by the law of May 7, 1946. The efforts of associations of resistance fighters and deportees and those of Communist deputies – to which we always opposed the overload of the month of May in public holidays – ended up being paying: the law of March 20, 1953 fixes the date on May 8. This celebration was suppressed by General de Gaulle in 1959, restored in 1968, again suppressed by President Giscard d’Estaing in 1975, then restored under François Mitterrand by the law of October 2, 1981.
But the most lively disputes are of a religious nature…
For a long time, freethinkers have been calling for the abolition of religious holidays, or, failing that, their meaning change. Thus, from the 1890s, the French Federation of Free Thought secularized the Christmas holiday by celebrating childhood celebrations called “human Christmas”. A name change was also suggested. On July 2, 1905, the socialist deputy Gérault-Richard demanded that the four Christian holidays be henceforth called Family (Christmas), Flower (Ascension), Harvest (August 15), Remembrance (Toussaint) holidays. His amendment was defeated by 356 votes to 195. For several years, disputes have erupted at Christmas not over the holiday itself, but over signs attached to it, including the nativity scene, whose presence in a public square or in a public building has been denounced in various cities by a Federation of Freethinkers. The administrative courts, the administrative courts of appeal and the Council of State have given different opinions (ordering or not the withdrawal of nurseries depending on the context).
Disputes also relate to the exclusively Christian character of religious festivals. This is why, on various occasions, it was suggested to add two or three non-Christian religious holidays. In 2003, the Stasi commission asked to recognize “the holiest days of the two other great monotheistic religions in France”, and to recognize as public holidays Yom Kippour, Aïd-el-Kébir and Orthodox Christmas for schools and companies, with the understanding that these days should be “compensated”. This proposal gave rise to heated and passionate debates. President Jacques Chirac opposed such a measure, while wishing that students wishing to celebrate Yom Kippour (the day of great forgiveness) or Aïd-el-Kébir (commemoration of the sacrifice requested by God from Abraham) could absence without having to justify themselves, which, in fact, was already the case because, since 1967, the Ministry of National Education has published an annual circular giving the list of religious holidays (Orthodox, Armenian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhists) which may give rise to leave of absence, subject, however, to compatibility “with the normal operation of the service”.
This is why the initiative of Toulouse police officers consisting in noting the number and the names of Muslim pupils taken during the last feast of Eid-el-Fitr (celebration of the end of the Ramadan fast) has aroused indignation. particularly vivid. The Secretary of State responsible for citizenship, Sonia Backès, indicated that “the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Territories regularly studies the impact of certain religious holidays on the functioning of public services, and in particular within the school sphere”, but affirmed that no nominative data had been requested; the initiative would therefore have been taken by the Toulouse police, which aroused the indignation and concern of political circles, trade unions, associations and those of Muslim circles. Believing that “opprobrium” had been cast on Muslims in France, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, asked for clarification.
The question of the celebration of non-Christian religious holidays is particularly delicate and raises questions about the visibility of religion in general in society and the (legitimate) wish of Muslims to see their holidays recognized in the same way as Christian holidays. , which some consider doubly contrary to secularism and to the republican identity of France, largely based, precisely, on secularism, but also on a constitutional indivisibility contrary to any form of separatism and therefore of communitarianism. In 2019, in his book Passion for FranceJean-Pierre Chevènement did not consider that “our fellow citizens of Muslim tradition must understand that they are not, in France, in a country of the Dar al Islam. They must take into account the mores of the host society”? These remarks by the former minister – who has, on various occasions, condemned the discrimination against French citizens of Muslim faith or culture – were then aimed at food and clothing behaviors , but, in a tense climate, aren’t they likely to generate hostility against Muslim holidays?
Has the original meaning of public holidays changed, or even lost, over time?
Yes, the meaning of certain holidays has changed, sometimes for a long time. Thus the confusion between All Saints’ Day (joyful feast of “all saints”) and Day of the Dead (day of remembrance, of sadness, during which families honor their dead by going to the cemetery, a practice which tends to decrease) dates neither from today, nor even from yesterday and is explained in part because the public holiday being November 1st, it is on this day that families have the material possibility of going to the cemetery.
The “religious disaffiliation” of the French (data from INSEE: in 2019-2020, 51% of French people aged 18 to 59 declare themselves “without religion” and only 29% of the French population declare themselves Catholic – which does not mean moreover not practicing) – explains not only the loss of meaning of Christian holidays, but also their primary meaning. Words like “Ascension” or “Assumption” are probably meaningless for atheists, agnostics, followers of non-Christian religions, but also probably for people calling themselves Catholics, meaningless theologically, but also factually.
Ignorance or disinterest do not only affect religious holidays. Already, in 1964, a survey of young people in the Paris region, aged fifteen to eighteen, showed that for them, July 14 was synonymous with balls and entertainment: only 56% mentioned taking the Bastille. During the debate launched in 2009 on the theme of national identity, 47% of French people felt that July 14 was “not very useful” or “not at all useful” to the life of the Nation.
Do public holidays seem irremovable to you today? Former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin (2002-2005) failed to replace Pentecost Monday with a “solidarity day”…
Indeed, while the composition of the list of public holidays was constantly upset throughout the 19th century, it seems difficult today to make changes to it, as proven by the failure of Bernard Stasi [président de la commission sur la laïcité proposant, en 2003, la suppression du lundi de Pentecôte, NLDR] and that of François Fillon who, during the campaign for the 2017 presidential election, wanted to “boost growth” by eliminating a public holiday. The example of the multiple changes undergone by the celebration of May 8 between 1946 and 1981 (a recent period, although dating back several decades) makes it difficult to speak of security of tenure.
On this subject, it should be noted that, contrary to popular belief, the law of June 30, 2004 – aimed at establishing a day of solidarity “to finance an aid plan for the elderly and disabled” – did not remove Monday from Pentecost (which always remained registered in the Labor Code), but designated it as a day of solidarity (worked and unpaid) only by default, in all cases where another day would not have been fixed “by an agreement, a branch agreement, a convention or a company agreement”. As we know, a very big mess ensued during the following years. Also the law of April 16, 2008 establishes new provisions for the day of solidarity, the Monday of Pentecost is not mentioned there.
In 2012, a bill aimed at setting a single day (November 11) to celebrate “all the dead for France” raised fears that the celebration of May 8 would disappear. The Republican Association of Veterans and Victims of War, Combatants for Friendship, Solidarity, Memory, Antifascism and Peace reacted strongly and brandished the slogan: “No to the single day, yes maintaining historical ceremonies”.
Today, the most significant change should or could relate to religious holidays and there, in fact, the situation seems to be blocked: cutting off one or more Christian holidays for the benefit of non-Christian holidays would risk triggering passions that are difficult to control and cause political and societal unrest; adding non-Christian holidays without subtracting Christian holidays would amount to increasing the number of legal holidays from eleven to twelve or thirteen (and more in Alsace-Moselle and in the Overseas Territories), that is to say giving rise to potential economic problems (lower productivity and GDP), although some economists deny the negative nature of public holidays on the economy, some of them seeing on the contrary a possibility of resourcing for workers and an opportunity to consumption for the entire population, particularly in the tourism and catering sectors.