We don't "celebrate" Napoleon or any other historical figure at all. They are mentioned in history books and promptly forgotten after graduation, they have statues that are just part of the scenery, they have streets and high schools named after them that no one give a second thought about, they are talked about for a couple of days when the media figure it is the Nth anniversary of this or that, etc.
They are just part of a background the layman doesn't cares about.
So titles like "Why don't the French celebrate Lafayette?" tell more about the author/editor of the article than about its subject.
Huh, I must have visited a different country then. It seems there isn't a single Bridge, Column or otherwise important building in Paris that hasn't a pompous "N" mounted onto it.
So it's a technicality? Technically every bridge bears his symbol, but no, "celebrating" him we are not.
I mean you have to willfully interprete the word "celebrating" as people dancing in the streets out of joy to read the parent's parent comment that way.
In other words: "It's in the background" rather means it's the foundation upon which (as other comments have pointed out) the French Revolution's winning side's narrative rests.
"It's in the background" means exactly that. They are just bridges that we cross to get from A to B, without a care in the world for their alleged symbolism. We just don't care.
I interpret "celebrating" as remembering something in a positive way. We're just indifferent, he's one of a few dozen important guys we heard about in history lessons, and that's it.
This is like saying that the continued existence of cathedrals is a celebration of Christianity. The République celebrates the Napoléons as much as it celebrates Roman Catholicism or kings: not at all.
In Rome you can still find Mussolini’s obelisk and some fascist inscriptions here and there. Italians definitely don’t celebrate Mussolini these days (well, some do, but you get the point).
They are just part of a background the layman doesn't cares about.
So titles like "Why don't the French celebrate Lafayette?" tell more about the author/editor of the article than about its subject.