The need to establish new forms of celebration arose immediately after the French Revolution. The abolition of dynastic and religious feasts of the Ancien Régime created a need for alternative occasions capable of edifying the citizens and renewing their collective imagination. A holiday in honour of the unity and indivisibility of the Republic was celebrated in Paris on August 10, 1793, commemorating the fall of the monarchy and celebrating the triumph of the Republic one year after the storming of the Tuileries Palace and the deposing of Louis XVI. Previously, Lafayette had advocated commemorating the Fête de la Fédération – originally held on 14 July 1790 to recalling the storming of the Bastille in 1789. It was not until 1880, however, that Bastille Day finally became the French national day. By choosing to celebrate this date, already highly evocative after the Romantic invocations by writers like Michelet and Victor Hugo, the Third Republic openly declared itself to be the heir of the 1789 Revolution, while at the same time dissociating itself from its violent later developments (notably in 1792-94).

At the end of the third Paris World Fair in 1878, it was decided that the centenary of the French Revolution should be celebrated with a universal exposition, to be held in the same city in 1889. In 1881, the periodical La Révolution française was founded at the initiative of Auguste Dide, Jean-Claude Colfavru, and Étienne Charavay, who also promoted the establishment of local associations with the purpose of celebrating the centenary. In 1886 a Comité d’études pour la préparation historique du Centenaire de 1789 was established, transforming itself into the Société d’histoire de la Révolution française in 1888, with the aim of spreading the scientific method in studies of the French Revolution as well as French history. On the occasion of the 1889 centenary, the association organized an exposition on the French Revolution at the Louvre museum; in addition, the centenary called forth many historical works on the Revolution, promoted both by the government and the municipality of Paris, and aimed at popularizing the events and to consolidate the republican interpretation of national history. The Revolution was also monumentalized in many paintings and statues celebrating its protagonists and episodes. Two particular dates were celebrated, 5 May (in remembrance of the meeting of the French Estates-General in 1789) and 4 August (in remembrance of the abolition of feudal rights and privileges by the National Assembly in 1789). 5 May also coincided with the opening ceremony of the 1889 Universal Exposition, with the construction of the Eiffel Tower as its highpoint. Many monarchies preferred not to participate officially, even though all the powers, except Germany and Montenegro, attended unofficially.

Under the Third Republic, civic festivals became a privileged opportunity to galvanize the public along national lines, playing an essential part in forming the people’s republican tradition. Funerals in particular played this role. They had already been the crystallizing point for public demonstrations and gatherings on certain occasions during the Ancien Régime and the early years of the Revolution, and in 1840 the reinterment of Napoleon’s corpse, repatriated from St Helena, had been a hugely mobilizing public event. During the Third Republic, grandiose funerals became rituals of republican education. The first grandiose national funeral was held in honour of the republican statesman Léon Gambetta; it took place in January 1883 and involved ceremonies stretching over nine days. From then on, grandiose ceremonies were also accorded to deceased writers, musicians, men of letters, and scientists – the Third Republic held no less than 82 state funerals. On 30 May 1878, the death of Voltaire, great forerunner of the Republic’s secularism, was commemorated – with some piquancy, since the date coincided with the feast day of Joan of Arc, figurehead of the Catholic wing of French politics and victim of Voltaire’s notorious play La pucelle d’Orléans. Semi-official ceremonies were held in Paris and in the provinces, with numerous booklets, leaflets, and posters printed and published for the occasion. The Voltaire celebration involved a good deal of openly anticlerical oratory; among the countless speeches paying tribute to him was one by Victor Hugo, who was himself to become the first writer to receive a civil state funeral. In 1883, Hugo had stipulated in his testament that he wanted to be escorted to the cemetery by a funeral cortège of poor people. After his death in 1885, the government took matters in hand. The funeral procession moved from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon and consisted, besides relatives and the civil and military authorities, of numerous delegations and associations. The coffin and family were preceded by a group of twelve young poets chosen by the family, a delegation from Hugo’s birthplace Besançon, a press delegation, and four artistic associations. The ceremony was opened by the speeches of the authorities, and all along the itinerary of the procession, which attracted huge crowds, performances abounded. Hugo’s corpse was laid to rest at the Panthéon, which was reopened for the occasion.