FIREWORKS will illuminate the Eiffel Tower in Paris tonight as the French celebrate Bastille Day in true tricolour.
This national icon will also be in bleu (blue) — blanc (white), rouge (red) — the colours of the French flag. “Vive la France” will be echoed through all the arteries of France and her overseas territories today.
This is a celebration of liberte, egalite and fraternite and is celebrated on July 14. The annual celebration is a nationwide holiday that commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of France marked by the Storming of the Bastille.
In Fiji, the French Embassy in Suva will host a French-themed celebration to commemorate the Storming of the Bastille 227 years ago at the French residence.
The Bastille was the name of a medieval fortress and prison in Paris that embodied the privilege and might of the royal authority back then. And although there were only seven prisoners at the Bastille on July 14, 227 years ago, its fall meant the start of the French Revolution and independence.
Many of the important intellectual, philosophical and legal struggles for fundamental freedoms emanated from the French Revolution and the creation, three years later, of the French Republic. Liberty, reason and knowledge as the basis of the declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen — have influenced modern legal systems and human rights practices. Liberty meant freedom of religion, freedom of the press and so on.
In the French capital, Bastille Day is celebrated every year with a military parade on the Champs Elysées in the morning and spectacular fireworks at night symbolising peace, liberty and fraternity.
Paris still holds the mother of all Bastille Day celebrations.
