Today, Friday 27 November 2015, is a national homage day of remembrance for the 130 victims of the Paris attacks. French citizens are invited to put out the French flag in the windows of their homes.
A National Homage Day
A remembrance ceremony is taking place on Friday morning at 10.30 am at the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, in the presence of the French President, his government and French officials. It marks the deaths of 130 victims in the Paris attacks on Friday, 13 November 2015.
The French President will make a speech, and the Republican Guard will carry a portrait photograph of every victim of the attacks.
Although the ceremony is limited to 1,000 people, including the families of the victims, it will be shown live on French TV.
French President François Hollande has invited all French citizens to put the Tricolour in the windows of their houses on Friday, 27 November 2015. According to government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll, each French national can take part in a national memorial ceremony by “dressing their houses with a blue-white-red flag, the colours of France […] We have tried to suggest something that will let every French person take part in Friday’s ceremony“.
Unlike in the US, displaying the national flag at home is not common in France, as it was seen as a symbol of nationalism or associated with the far-right.
Since the January 2015 Paris attacks, the French people’s relationship to the Tricolour is changing.
A recent poll revealed that almost two-thirds of the French now see it as a positive thing to fly the Tricolour at home.
In our little town of Maisons-Laffitte in the Western suburbs of Paris, most shopkeepers have put out their French flags in remembrance of the Paris attacks:
