Bastille Day | French, History and Modern Economics

Bastille Day: A French holiday in English

An Eiffel Tower replica is used in commemorating Bastille Day in Milwaukee.

Bastille Day is a French holiday celebrating the day in 1789 when French troops first stormed the Bastille, the center of royal power in Paris. Rather, “Bastille Day” is an Americanized version of that holiday.

See, in France, no one calls it Bastille Day. So if you’re looking up how to say “Bastille Day” in French, that’s Bastille Jour, seeing as how Bastille is already a French word. However, if you actually say that to a French person they’ll probably look at you strangely. Kind of like if you walked into a payday loan store and asked for a “payday loan no fax.” You’ll have better luck looking for one of those online.

Happy 14th of July

In France, they wish each other a “happy 14th of July,” and the holiday is called Fete National, which means national celebration. It’s sort of like Americans wishing each other “Happy 4th of July” on Independence Day. Saying “Happy Bastille Day” would be like saying “Happy Declaration Day” or something to that effect.

So here’s the French lesson. Happy 14th of July: Joyeux Quatorze Juillet. The J’s are of course pronounced all French-like. Joyeux is joy-OO, with the “oo” said like book. Quatorze is cat-OARS. Juillet is JWEE-ay.

Why wish someone a happy 14th?

Money and religion are the major causes of civil and international conflict, and those rules remain the same in France. The storming of the Bastille and surrounding civil war were caused largely by an economic crisis. From Wikipedia: ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Bastille Day | French, History and Modern Economics"