Public holidays and the Republic

Abstract

Public holidays, beyond being spaces of sociability or, more precisely, of leisure or of institutional or corporate non-work, are, or should be, times of remembrance. It may be said that some of the most widely celebrated holidays at the popular level are certain municipal holidays and even those corresponding to “village festivals”, in which the celebration of a saint is often regarded merely as a pretext for a secular festivity, whether at the table or at popular dances. This reflection constitutes a working hypothesis that may stimulate not so much historians as anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists and journalists, or help citizens to reflect upon the meaning they ought to attribute to public holidays.