Bastille Day
5
2.9
- noun
- /bæˈstiːl deɪ/
:
Día de la Bastilla
- That's why Bastille Day is gonna be a blast for me.
- celebrate Bastille Day
- Bastille Day celebrations
- Bastille Day parade
Examples
-
That'll take you up to the Bastille Day parade.
-
Many parades and festivities are organized across the country on Bastille Day every July 14th.
-
July 14th, Bastille Day, is our national holiday.
-
On Bastille Day, he stood on the village square wearing his medals.
Fiction book (2001) -
And today, in honor of Bastille Day, a French proverb.
-
I celebrate Bastille Day.
-
Iraq's monarchy was overthrown on Bastille Day (July 14).
Academic text (2003) -
Converting the church of Ste-Geneviève once again into the Pantheon and declaring Bastille Day a national holiday formed important aspects of their cultural program.
Academic text (2003) -
She bakes desserts, sings the "Marseillaise" on Bastille Day, and plays the kazoo at birthdays.
Academic text (2004) -
On July 14, 1993 (Bastille Day), SciTrek, the Science and Technology Museum of Atlanta, hosted a lighting ceremony for a forty-four-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Academic text (1993)
Synonyms
A national holiday in France that celebrates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a day commemorating the Bastille' is directly and transparently derived from combining the proper name 'Bastille' (a fortress stormed in 1789) with 'day' (a calendar day set aside for an event). Naming holidays as 'X Day' is a common, cross-linguistic pattern (e.g. Independence Day), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer this is the national holiday linked to the Bastille event.
Etymology
Bastille Day comes from the 1789 attack on the Bastille, a prison in Paris that people stormed to fight for freedom. Because that event began the French Revolution, the day now 'marks' the start of that change and is a national holiday in France.