What festival celebrated Reason as the supreme deity at Notre-Dame Cathedral in November 1793?

The Festival of Reason celebrated Reason as the supreme deity at Notre-Dame Cathedral in November 1793.

The ceremony took place in Paris on 10 November 1793, or 20 Brumaire in the revolutionary calendar. It formed part of the Cult of Reason, an anti-clerical and atheistic movement that sought to replace traditional Catholic worship with civic ceremonies centred on reason, truth and republican ideals.

Notre-Dame was temporarily transformed into a Temple of Reason. The Christian altar was dismantled, an altar dedicated to Liberty was installed, and the cathedral’s interior featured theatrical decorations, including a symbolic mountain and a temple dedicated to Philosophy. A living woman represented a goddess-like figure associated with Reason and Liberty.

The Festival of Reason should not be confused with the later Festival of the Supreme Being. That rival deistic cult was promoted by Maximilien Robespierre in 1794, after he rejected the Cult of Reason’s atheism. The Cult of Reason soon lost influence when its leading Hébertist supporters were arrested and executed.