What is this holiday celebrated on December 4 by the firefighters of France?

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This Wednesday, December 4, like every year, is St. Barbara’s Day. In the fire stations, balls and banquets will follow one another to the rhythm of a day dedicated to them.

But where does the legend of the patron saint of firefighters come from? We tell you.

A conversion to Christianity that ends badly

To talk about Sainte-Barbe, we have to go back to the middle of the 3rd century. Barbara, originally from the East, is the only daughter of Dioscorus. Endowed with great beauty, according to the firefighters' website, Barbara refuses to marry the powerful lords who covet her.

Her father then decides to lock her in a tower, where she lives away from men. It is in this tower that Christ would have revealed himself to her. Upon hearing of this religious conversion, her father became terribly angry, to the point of wanting to kill her with his sword.

If she manages to hide, Barbara is denounced and her father manages to find her. She will decide not to reconsider her religious choice in front of a judge.

The judge sentences her to the worst torture under the gaze of her father. Her breasts are torn off with iron combs, she is burned with red-hot blades and then she is whipped. But, by the grace of God, she does not feel pain. Finally, she is paraded naked across the country, pulled by a horse. She implores God and an angel comes to hide her nudity.

As she refuses to renounce the Christian religion, her father beheads her. According to legend, he was immediately struck by lightning and reduced to dust.

Several trades celebrate St. Barbara’s Day

And if today, firefighters celebrate Saint Barbara's Day, it is not the only trade that has chosen to place itself under the protection of the “Saint of Fire”: miners, pyrotechnicians, saltpeters, founders, culveriers , arquebusiers… All professions related to fire or lightning turn to it.

Saint Barbara protects against “male death”, that is to say death without having received the last sacraments, which prohibited the faithful from being buried as Christians in the Middle Ages.

How do we celebrate St. Barbara’s Day?

For firefighters, celebrating Sainte-Barbe became widespread during the Third Republic. Religious ceremony, banquet and ball were on the program.

Today, for the firefighters, it is the opportunity to organize a “a special moment to reaffirm the cohesion of the group, to pay tribute to the missing”. It is also an opportunity for the authorities to reward firefighters.

Afterwards, a meal and a ball can be organized. A convivial moment “which can sometimes last until the early morning”, specifies the French firefighters.

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