“It’s a giant history lesson”: in Montpellier, “the national holiday of July 14 is not proclaimed, it is lived”

Une retraite aux flambeaux populaire avec des lampions tricolores. MIDI LIBRE – RICHARD DE HULLESSEN

On the eve of a weekend of celebration, Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 July, Mayor Michaël Delafosse explains the importance of the national holiday in Montpellier.

The City of Montpellier is not skimping on July 14. In addition to the traditional fireworks display on Sunday evening, the celebrations are enriched each year with a new event. After the torchlight retreat with the fanfare, the sound and light show, the orchestra concert, the firefighters' ball and the taking of arms, a republican banquet will be held offered to children of single mothers. An idea from the mayor himself. Professor of history and geography in college, Michaël Delafosse does not hide his attachment to the symbols conveyed by July 14. Today more than ever in the wake of the early legislative elections.

De la comédie à la place royale du Peyrou, la retraite aux flambeaux rassemble les Montpelliérains sous les couleurs des bonnets phrygiens à la veille du #14Juillet pic.twitter.com/IATTotzibi

— Midi Libre Montpellier (@MLMontpellier) July 13, 2023

From the storming of the Bastille in 1789 to the Fête de la Fédération

"This is an opportunity for Montpellier residents and the French alike to appropriate the values ​​of the Republic", insists the mayor, who does not lose the opportunity to recall the origin of the national holiday. "The anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the Federation Day a year later have been celebrated since 1880. It’ the Third Republic which fought to anchor the national holiday and associate it with the republican ideal." He also likes to recall that it was Léon Blum, after the victory of the Popular Front in 1936, who established the firefighters' ball. A body, whose mission is to protect people, is celebrated in the most popular form possible…hellip;

A tribute to Victor Hugo in sound and light

This year the sound and light show will pay tribute to Victor Hugo "great figure of the Republic", exiled for nearly& ;nbsp;19 years after the coup d'état of Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, whose speech still resonates in the ears of the mayor: "It’is by the fraternity that we save freedom. "Society needs benchmarks. National Day is a moment of sharing around the values ​​of the Republic. It is not proclaimed, it is lived! The children will remember July 14 in Montpellier. It’s a giant history lesson!"