10 October 25

In 1792, in post-revolutionary France, the new government wanted a calendar that avoided all connections to religion. The result, called the French Republican Calendar, had twelve months of thirty days. (Five other special days were scattered among the months.) My interest in this calendar stems from its designation of each day of the year to honor a plant or crop, a farm tool, or a farm animal. Our date of 10 October was renamed Tournesol, for the sunflower, assigned to the nineteenth day in the month of Vendémiaire (grape harvest). My tie for Sunflower Day celebrates the art of VincentVan Gogh!