Tomorrow's Bastille Day

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1.  

   japaneseboats ~ 10 months ago

   0 votes
   
   Or quatorze juillet - as the French call it these days (!)
   
   Thanks for adding this clemmati. We are usually over there. There will be a huge firework display on the quayside of our local French fishing village, followed by a bal populaire ( dancing to some awful local pop/rock group) in the town square starting at 11.30pm. Beer tent obligatory!
   
   Aux Armes citoyens...( terrible words to La Marseillaise - baying for those of impure blood - almost as bad as God Save The Queen :D
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   1.  

      jbravo ~ 10 months ago

      0 votes
      
      Does "quatorze juillet" just mean "the 14th of July?"
      
      Off on a tangent. -- we still razz my wife every year on that Mexican holiday, "Cinco de Mayo." One year she asked innocently "when is Cinco de Mayo?" Honest mistake when one doesn't speak Spanish -- but funny nonetheless. :-)
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      1.  

         japaneseboats ~ 10 months ago

         0 votes
         
         Exactly JB - the point being they don't refer to it as Bastille Day anymore. 14 July is the just the French National Day - (a bit like 4th July being the popular name for Independence Day in the USA, perhaps?).
         
         Sadly in the UK we don't have a National Day. Although the patron saint's day of the various countries (England St George, 23 April; Scotland St Andrew,? November ; Wales St David ? March) are increasingly celebrated locally, none of them is an official holiday.
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         1.  

            clemmati ~ 10 months ago

            0 votes
            
            St David's Day is March 1!! (I thought we were going to have a Britain Day?)
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            1.  

               japaneseboats ~ 10 months ago

               0 votes
               
               Sorry clemmati re St David's Day. My husband is Scottish and doesn't know what date St Andrew's Day is...
               
               I did hear about some half-hearted discussions to have a Britain Day. It wld be good to have another bank holiday in the summer months - whatever it was called!
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   2.  

      clemmati ~ 10 months ago

      0 votes
      
      Ah - I rather envy you, having a local village there! I sometimes think of moving there.
      
      Yes the words are horrible, sang impur abreuve nos sillons, indeed... (I've just found a hilarious English translation!) I suppose I let the song's revolutionary connections blind me to its lyrics, sometimes.
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2.  

   penumbra2000 ~ 10 months ago

   0 votes
   
   It seems to be common among national identities to have intolerant and sometimes kind of disgusting elements to them. I guess it goes to show how much our perceptions of what's appropriate can change over time. :)
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   1.  

      clemmati ~ 10 months ago

      0 votes
      
      I really dislike nationalism, for that reason. When I first knew South East Wales, some English-speakers were intolerant of Welsh-speakers and vice versa (for example, speaking Welsh was banned from some school common rooms, speaking English, from others). Now Welsh speakers have made a lot of headway and the problem seems to have gone but Welsh nationalsts can still be rather vicious.
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3.  

   clemmati ~ 10 months ago

   0 votes
   
   japaneseboats, no need to apologise! I only know when St David's Day is because I was at school here and then, anyway, we had days off lessons (we had mini-Eisteddfods instead).
   
   I'd like another Bank Holiday too, but in the long run up to Christmas, an October one, perhaps.
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4.  

   AdGuy

   22 votes
   
   This is my two cents...
   
      
   Hey you know AdGuy always gets the last word! ;)