Today, Bastille Day, is the French celebration of the day in 1789 credited with the beginning of the French Revolution. If you want to celebrate what is known as la Fête Nationale in France, these Bastille Day 2018 Instagram caption ideas about resistance and hope are perfect, even if you're not in France. Sure, you may be celebrating Bastille Day by honoring French culture (brie and baguettes, anyone?), but it's important not to forget that this holiday has revolutionary origins.
On July 14, 1798, amid widespread famine and unemployment, revolutionaries stormed the Bastille — a military fortress and prison, the website HISTORY explained. "As a prison, it held political dissidents (such as the writer and philosopher Voltaire), many of whom were locked away without a trial by order of the king," HISTORY noted. Ultimately, the French revolution was prompted by the government's impending economic disaster. "Following a harsh winter, violent food riots began breaking out across France at bakeries, granaries, and other food storage facilities."
Similar to the Independence Day celebrations in the U.S., Bastille Day is celebrated annually on July 14 with fireworks, parades, and parties. According to the website Time and Date, Bastille Day celebrations take place around the world, including in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. There are also festivals of French culture in South Africa and Hungary.
So go ahead and post that #TBT of your Paris vacation, or your study abroad in Marseille, or your French-inspired picnic. But just remember that July 14 has a pretty significant meaning that's all too resonant today. If you want to celebrate the resistance, these Bastille Day 2018 Instagram captions can give you some inspiration.
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It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times ...
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness ... we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way... — Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
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To The Wrongs That Need Resistance ...
To the wrongs that need resistance. To the right that needs assistance. To the future in the distance. Give yourselves. — Carrie Chapman Catt
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Resistance Here Doesn't Mean Revolution ...
Resistance here doesn't mean revolution. It doesn't mean storming the barricades. Resistance means using art for the things that it does best, which is to create human portraits and communicate ideas and forge a climate where people of different races or classes are known to you because they make themselves known. In the simplest terms, art humanizes. It opens the circuit of empathy. — Questlove
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Lead By Example ...
When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example. — Roxane Gay
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I Write These Words To Bear Witness ...
I write these words to bear witness to the primacy of resistance struggle in any situation of domination (even within family life); to the strength and power that emerges from sustained resistance and the profound conviction that these forces can be healing, can protect us from dehumanization and despair. — bell hooks
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...That In Itself Is Resistance
Living more intensely, more lovingly, with more camaraderie, that is in itself resistance. — Elia Suleiman
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The First Resistance To Social Change ...
The first resistance to social change is to say it's not necessary. — Gloria Steinem
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Nolite te Bastardes Carborundorum
Nolite te Bastardes Carborundorum (don’t let the bastards grind you down). — Handmaid's Tale
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There Is A Crack In Everything ...
There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything). That's how the light gets in. — Leonard Cohen
