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Fear
> Fête de la Fédération
> A
Summary of what happened...
In
May of 1790, the districts of Paris decided to celebrate the first anniversary
of the Storming of the Bastille, which had taken place on July 14 of
the year previous. The idea was greeted with enthusiasm from all, and
it was eventually agreed that representatives from the National Guard
would swear allegiance to the Nation, the Law and the Crown; Mass would
be said by Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun, and a Te Deum sing; and the
banners of the 83 departments of France would be blessed. Both royalists
and patriots
had reservations about inviting large numbers of provincial milita
to Paris, but in the end they posed no threat.
To
provide a setting large enough to accommodate the ceremony, a vast amphitheatre
was constructed on the outskirts of Paris, on the Champs-de-Mars between
the Ecole Militaire and the Siene river. The event was
only able to take place because municipal labourers from Paris volunteered
to work long hours and complete the construction before the actual anniversary.
This collaborative effort became enshrined in revolutionary memory:
the more the political consensus fragmented, and the more fractious
the conflicts between groups became, the more the Fête de la
Fédération was savoured as a moment of fraternity
and unanimity.
The
festival itself was basically a cross between a military parade and
a religious rally. The active participants, the National Guard, paraded
through Paris to the Champ-de-Mars, crossing a pontoon bridge
to pass through a huge temporary triumphal arch with figurative bas-reliefs
and mottos extolling constitutional monarchy and celebrating the new
era of freedom.
The
Fête de la Fédération was an opportunity
for the Church and State to share harmonious relations which had not
happened for some time.
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