French Revolutionary Symbols Trivia Quiz

Answer: It was like the headgear worn in Ancient Greece by freed slaves from Phrygia.

Though a similar hat is worn by fishermen in the South of France, the reason was for its resemblance to the freed slaves. Curiously enough, though, they are done by a Belgian artist, the Smurfs, or Schtroumpfs in French, wear this sort of headgear, but of course in its blue version. I could not find the reason for this.

Answer: This means "without breeches" as they preferred long pants or trousers to the breeches or hose of the aristocracy.

The sans-culottes became a famous figure in imagery. The long trousered revolutionary with a pike pole and the Phrygian bonnet became characteristic of them. Culotte means women's underpants in modern French. Cul meaning behind or bottom, such as in the expression "cul de sac". If you've finished the quiz, then you'll have seen the republican calendar which had a few holidays in its ten-day weeks and with a few leftovers they had "sans culottides" holidays! They wished to take the emphasis away from Sunday. By the way, if your wife wears "la culotte" it means she's the one who wears the pants in the family. Hard to keep these things straight, but it's only a problem with the terms for underwear evolving.

Answer: Marianne

Marianne is the symbol of the French Republic. Jeanne d'Arc is also a symbol but a Christian one as well. She is highly charged with symbolism and statues abound of her. But the true republican symbol is Marianne. The name was common at the time, and the connection with the Virgin Mary is probably not coincidental. Delacroix's version of "Liberty leading the people", 1830, was highly controversial as he dared to show the embodiment of France, with a worker's unshaven armpits and real exposed breast!

Answer: It commemorates the taking of the fortress prison the Bastille in 1789.

The government wished to emphasize the republican quality of the Revolution and the fact that this action was truly a break between the past and the future. Current practice is to offer a large free dance in the public square of each town. A military parade is also the practice. During the 1989 celebration of the bicentennial, many aristocrats refused to celebrate this holiday as their ancestors had been guillotined during the revolution.

In French it is rarely referred to as Bastille Day but instead, 'La fete nationale' or 'le quatorze juillet'.

Answer: Dr. Guillotin was executed by guillotine.

Contrary to very popular belief, Dr. Guillotin died of natural causes. Actually, he wished to make the executions less of a public spectacle and more humane. He pushed his legislation but wasn't successful until later. The guillotine was used in other countries earlier, but mainly to kill poultry or animals. Dr. Louis adapted it to the human.

The people actually sang songs about the guillotine, giving it a feminine gender. Many earlier revolutionaries did not escape the fate of being guillotined themselves. Roget de L'Isle, the author of the national anthem was one of them who narrowly escaped!

Answer: Because 'jeu de paume' is modern tennis' ancestor therefore a court and when the Tiers-Etat arrived there was not enough room for them to assemble in the "menus plaisirs" room with the nobles and the clergy.

Jeu de Paume would be more like squash or handball today. Some people still practice it. The Jeu de Paume museum in Paris is named for the same reason. It used to be a tennis court. Paume meaning palm literally, you might have thought the game was holding up your hands to swear. Pomme is apple. Hope you didn't select that.

Answer: It is the official legal symbol of France.

The "coq gallois" albeit unofficial is very present throughout the country. for example on statues, weathervanes, etc. When a French team wins (yes they occasionally do) the journalist will say, "and a big cocorico is in order for our team..." However, the Elysée website says that the coq is not officially the symbol.

Answer: They denied French people the right to worship in churches.

The French republican calendar is fascinating as it has very poetic words for each day, and associations. It probably corresponds to our astrological or gemstones fascination today. But they actually eradicated the 7-day week and put in a ten day one! With the leftover days they had an occasional holiday called a "sans culottide".

These things did not last long though, the calendar went out in early 1804. The writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau was partially responsible for this movement and was honoured at one such event.

The clergy did either swear or left. They didn't actually dare deny them the right to worship, they simply tried to control it by various methods.

Answer: She was a disillusioned Girondin supporter who saw Marat demanding more and more bloodshed and heads and thought she could prevent further damage.

Corday was guillotined July 17th 1793 for her crime. But she'd written out her reasons, she truly felt as though the killing of the more moderate Girondins had to stop. He was in the bath purportedly because of his skin afflictions. As to equal rights for women, Olympe de Gouges was perhaps the most vocal spokeswoman, she was guillotined as well.

Answer: Because soldiers from Marseille were heard singing it during the insurrection in the Tuileries in August 1792.

The Marseillaise with its rather bloody character took time to become adapted. There were several versions. The author escaped the guillotine because of his patriotic song. He was from Lons-le Saunier, not Marseille.