When school in France ends for the year, life slows down for everyone. Many children are sent to visit cousins or grandparents in the country (there are special trains just for this purpose where children can travel unaccompanied under the care of entertainers). This time of year is also when you begin to hear the phrase, “À la rentrée!”, which loosely translated means, “See you in the fall!”
At first glance, it’s easy to think of la rentrée as the start of a new school year. But it’s much more than this. It encompasses a complete re-boot of life. Children do go back to school. But it’s also the time when politicians return to their work, when businesses that closed for summer holidays re-open, and new books, plays, and “serious” movies are released. If you could combine back-to-school with New Year’s and the Cannes Film Festival, you might begin to comprehend what this time of year means to the French. Everything starts new, all at once. It’s a national holiday, and everyone is in a festive mood. Even if they don’t have children.
Tracing the roots of the celebration is challenging. Some historians go back as far as 1231 when Pope Gregory IX closed colleges for several weeks in August, to allow students to help their families bring in the year’s harvest. This was, perhaps, the beginning of “Dead August” (the near complete break from work during these weeks, by a large portion of the French population). But the unified return to normal life after the holidays is more accurately tied to two other reforms.
In 1882, compulsory education – free, and secular – was instituted. Because the control of the education system is federal in France, everyone is on pretty much the same school schedule. Which means nearly all students go back to school on the same day. This makes it possible to celebrate the event universally. However, the real impetus for countrywide la rentrée celebrations was legislation in the early 1930’s, which guaranteed union workers paid holidays. This meant more people were able to go away in the summer, and that many union employees vacationed at the same time, resulting in a greater sense of occasion when everyone returned.
Although the dates of summer vacations, and la rentrée, have continued to be adjusted, it’s now a well established holiday – and a paid day off for most workers.