Did you know that the guillotine was still in use when the movie Star Wars (1977) was released? Maybe you didn't know that the French celebrate almost a dozen national holidays every year? Maybe you knew that about a third to half of basic English words are derived from French words, including but not limited to: surf, view, aware, challenge, pride, and war? As you can see from the information above, the country of France has a long and convoluted history, during which its advanced military, culture and holidays have developed greatly. Imagine being forced to lie down horizontally and look out at the masses of people around you. You try to look up, but the wooden cuffs around your neck keep you in place. The only thing you can see is the blue sky, and floating at the edge of your peripheral vision, the faint glint of the impossibly shiny and heavy metal blade suspended some fourteen feet above your head. When you hear the creak of the rope holding your waist up, you start to sweat. Thus it was that death came to King Louis XVI and many others who fell under the mighty power of the French army. These individuals were executed by one of the most powerful death machines of the time: the infamous guillotine. According to the article "Off With Their Heads - History of the Guillotine", the guillotine took about one seventieth of a second to fall from its apex to its nadir (a distance that also averaged fourteen feet). while the actual decapitation lasted only two hundredths of a second. The speed of a guillotine was about twenty-one feet per second. Despite this apparent speed, these executions were apparently far from the middle of the paper, yes because it was the day Germany surrendered and the war ended. On this day there is a minute's silence but no military parade. Another holiday that celebrates the end of a war is May 8th or Victoire 1945, which celebrates the end of World War II and another French victory. People participate in parades, sing patriotic songs, hang the national flag throughout the country, and sometimes remember the people who died serving France during the war. Therefore, on these national days commemorating wars, the French can pay homage to the dead. In conclusion, French culture is one that has diversified over the years, particularly in the sectors: military, cultural and festive. This can be demonstrated through the great legacy and history that the French have left behind in the years gone by and continue to produce to this day..