What François Bayrou forgets of Christian history

In 383 of our era, the Pilgrimerian Pilgrim, a great lady who was undoubtedly from Galicia (Spain), details in her travel account, the celebration of the Easter Octave in Jerusalem: “Every day, it is the same decoration and the same pump (…) The monks of the place, in full, continue to watch until day by saying hymns and antitians. (…) Because of the solemnity and the pump of these days, countless crowds come together from everywhere, not only monks, but also lay people, men and women. »*

From the first centuries of Christianity, the eight (“octo”) days following the resurrection were an integral part of the party. A custom undoubtedly inherited from Jewish practices where the big festivals stretch over an entire week, and formalized under the reign of the Emperor Constantine (272-337 AD).

Under Napoleon, already the desire to save money

This millennial tradition of the Easter Octave – like that of Christmas – remained in force … up to the Concordat signed between Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII. Anxious to restore religious peace after the upheavals of the Revolution, the first consul nevertheless found that the people were unemployed too many days and that it was harming the economy of the country! He then decreed that only the Monday following the Pascal Sunday would be a holiday… it was so in 1802, the French lost at once four days of rest. In the footsteps of Bonaparte, François Bayrou may say that he is very reasonable to want to suppress only the day after religious celebration and a day of civil party (May 8).

* Travel Journal, By muse, edited by the historian Pierre Maraval, ed.du deer. Sold only used.