A closer look
1793 Paris was not only blood-soaked by guillotines—it was filled with strange festivals where revolutionaries tried to invent new gods. One attempt, the Cult of the Supreme Being, had street parades and paper mountains, designed to replace traditional religion with civic virtue. People attended because they were afraid not to, but mostly whispered how absurd it was. The lesson? Even revolutions thirst for rituals. Even in 2025, when new movements rise around climate or cryptocurrency, we mirror that need for sacred spaces—though ours may look like climate strikes or blockchain conferences instead of parades. The human urge for ceremony never dies.
