Bastille Day is the French national holiday, celebrated on July 14 each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale (National Celebration) and commonly referred to as le 14 juillet.
Bastille Day commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, a fortress-prison, on July 14, 1789 during the French Revolution. The anniversary of the storming of the Bastille was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation and of the reconciliation and unity of the French inside the constitutional monarchy that preceded the First Republic. Festivities are held on the morning of July 14 on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in front of the President of the Republic.
