ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at ways in which the bourgeois takeover of courtly models has interlocked with civil service traditions to foster recent time period's cult of anniversaries. The civil service tradition of the French interacts with the courtier tradition of the Germans to shape European attitudes toward commemorations. While the French and the Germans parade their traditions of courtly and revolutionary anniversaries, American academics have yet to forge a style for presenting luminaries to a larger audience. The contrast between French and German styles of commemoration goes beyond the difference between courtiers and revolutionaries. A protypical commemoration in Europe involves a conference or an exhibition held in a former castle, palace, or monastery. The resemblance of cultural managers in Europe to courtly officials embraces a variety of attitudes, the most important of which is veneration for the Great Calendar.
