Firemen's Ball Firemen's Ball is a traditional folk festiv | Honest historian
Firemen's Ball
Firemen's Ball is a traditional folk festival held by firemen in Paris and other French cities on July 13 or 14, that is, on the eve or directly on the day of the main national holiday.
There are several versions of the origin of the holiday. According to the most common, French firefighters have long held festivities in barracks for themselves and their families. One day, on July 14, 1937, a certain sergeant named Cournet unexpectedly decided to open the doors of his barracks in Montmartre and splash out a party on the streets of the city - with firecrackers, sparks and simulated firefighting rides. This supposedly pleased not only the townspeople but also their colleagues from other fire stations so much that every year more and more firefighters participated in the holiday, more and more people gathered for it.
In any case, this tradition goes back more than a decade, interrupted only for the period of World War II, 1939-1945.
