Today (14/07/2024) is Bastille Day or the Fête nationale française, an annual national holiday celebrated throughout France and its overseas territories, as well as in former French colonies.
The event commemorates the storming of the Bastille Saint-Antoine in Paris, a landmark historical event which many argue sparked the beginning of the French Revolution. On this day in 1789, a crowd of protestors captured the Bastille fortress—then used as a prison for political opponents of the government—and released the inmates. This institution was perceived as symbolic of the authoritarian nature of France’s Ancien Régime. Its seizure marked a shift in the balance of power, paving the way for the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic in 1792. This period is considered to be one of the most dramatic political upheavals in modern history—the storming of the Bastille remains an inspirational point of reference for those opposing tyranny and oppression across the world.
In Paris, the day is marked by contrasting public events: one, a grand yet solemn military parade on the Champs-Elysées; the other, a festive firework display at the iconic Eiffel Tower, as well as at other locations across the country. Further afield, the former French colony of Pondicherry in India starts its festivities on 14 July with tributes to war heroes at their French War Memorial. The national anthems of India and France are then played and celebrations begin.[1] In French Polynesia, draconian laws which allowed Tahitians to participate in sport, singing, and dancing only on Bastille Day led, over time, to the evolution of the major Heiva I Tahiti festival in Papeete. Still celebrated on 14 July, the Heiva is a competitive song and dance festival which attracts competitors from all over the archipelagos and islands of French Polynesia. The origin of this festival is not without some irony: these celebrations of Polynesian culture only became the fully fledged Heiva I Tahiti festival in 1985, the year in which Tahiti obtained greater political autonomy from France, the much-vaunted espousers of “liberty, fraternity, equality”.[2]
[1] “Bastille Day Festival, Pondicherry”, Tour My India, available at https://www.tourmyindia.com/states/puducherry/bastille-day-festival.html
[2] Tiare, “The History of the Heiva I Tahiti”, Tahiti Dance Online, available at https://tahitidanceonline.com/the-history-of-the-heiva-i-tahiti/