Just in case you didn’t get a chance to celebrate independence in your red, white, and blue, France is giving you another opportunity to let freedom ring.
Bastille Day, France’s Independence Day which falls on July 14th, is fast approaching and French ex-pats and New Yorkers alike are getting ready to celebrate the day of revolution and revelry.
Throwing New York’s largest public celebration is the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), a cultural center that has made a point to bring the French joie de vivre to the city.
The holiday marks the historic takeover of Bastille prison, the beheading of many French royalists, and the power of the French revolution of the 1790s.
“I don’t know how it came to be a celebration of happiness and dance,” Jacqueline Chambord, former Artistic Director at FIAF, told the Observer. “When I am in Paris, it is very noisy with all the balls all over the city and people dancing in the streets.”
The FIAF’s festivities began over 15 years ago and other French fanatics have joined in the celebration. While Paris celebrates with fireworks and festivities, New York has infused its own flair into the holiday.
“The way we celebrate it is to try to recreate the same type of fun event but with our own kind of flavor of how to celebrate,” FIAF’s Public Relations Director Natascha Bodemann said. “It’s it own unique thing.”
Most Bastille Day events will be celebrated on Sunday, July 13th, so make sure to check out our top picks.