How come February has only 28 days?

February 27, 1987

Dear Cecil:

How come February only has 28 days (plus an extra day in leap year) when all the rest of the months have 30
or 31? Did they figure winter would go faster if the months were short?

— Randy Sue C., USA Weekend, Arlington, Virginia

Dear Randy Sue:

You may be closer to the truth than you think, scoop. But let's dispose of the other explanations first. A widely
believed--but possibly erroneous--story has it that February is so short because the Romans borrowed a day
from it to add to August. August was originally a 30-day month called Sextilis, but it was renamed to honor the
emperor Augustus Caesar, just as July had earlier been renamed to honor Julius Caesar. Naturally, it wouldn't
do to have Gus's month be shorter than Julius's, hence the switch.

But some historians say this is bunk. They say February has always had 28 days, going back to the 8th century
BC, when a Roman king by the name of Numa Pompilius established the basic Roman calendar. Before Numa
was on the job the calendar covered only ten months, March through December. December, as you may know,
roughly translates from Latin as "tenth." July was originally called Quintilis, "fifth," Sextilis was sixth,
September was seventh, and so on.

To meticulous persons such as ourselves, Randy, having the calendar run out in December and not pick up
again until March probably seems like a pretty casual approach to timekeeping. However, we must realize that
3,000 years ago, not a helluva lot happened between December and March. The Romans at the time were an
agricultural people, and the main purpose of the calendar was to govern the cycle of planting and harvesting.

Numa, however, was a real go-getter-type guy, and when he got to be in charge of things, he decided it was going
to look pretty stupid if the Romans gave the world a calendar that somehow overlooked one-sixth of the year. So
he decided that a year would have 355 days--still a bit off the mark, admittedly, but definitely a step in the right
direction. Three hundred fifty five days was the approximate length of 12 lunar cycles, with lots of leap days
thrown in to keep the calendar lined up with the seasons. Numa also added two new months, January and
February, to the end of the year. Since the Romans thought even numbers were unlucky, he made seven of the
months 29 days long, and four months 31 days long.

But Numa needed one short, even-numbered month to make the number of days work out to 355. February got
elected. It was the last month of the year (January didn't become the first month until centuries later), it was in
the middle of winter, and presumably, if there had to be an unlucky month, better to make it a short one.

Many years later, Julius Caesar reorganized the calendar yet again, giving it 365 days. Some say he made
February 29 days long, 30 in leap year, and that Augustus Caesar later pilfered a day; others say Julius just kept
it at 28. None of this changes the underlying truth: February is so short mainly because it was the month
nobody liked much--a judgment with which I heartily concur. Frankly, if the Romans had cut it down to 15
minutes, it wouldn't have bothered me a bit.
February
February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month and the only
month with fewer than 30 days. The month has 29 days in leap years, when the year number is divisible by four
(except for years that are divisible by 100 and not by 400 in the Gregorian calendar). In common years the month has
28 days.

In the Southern Hemisphere, February is the seasonal equivalent of August in the Northern Hemisphere.

February starts on the same day of the week in March and November in common years, and on the same day of the
week as August in leap years. February ends on the same day of the week as October every year and January in
common years only.

History

February, from the Très riches heures du Duc de Berry

February, Leandro Bassano

Chocolates for Valentine's Day

February was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa held
on February 15 in the old Roman calendar. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman
calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. They were added by Numa Pompilius
about 700 BC. February remained the last month of the calendar year until the time of the decemvirs (c. 450 BC),
when it became the second month. At certain intervals February was truncated to 23 or 24 days; and a 27-day
intercalary month, Intercalaris, was inserted immediately after February to realign the year with the seasons.

Under the reforms that instituted the Julian calendar, Intercalaris was abolished, leap years occurred regularly every
fourth year (after a few years of confusion), and in leap years February gained a 29th day. Thereafter, it remained the
second month of the calendar year, meaning the order that months are displayed (January, February, March, ...,
December) within a year-at-a-glance calendar. Even during the Middle Ages, when the numbered Anno Domini year
began on March 25 or December 25, the second month whenever all twelve months were displayed in order. The
Gregorian calendar reforms made slight changes to the system for determining which years were leap years and thus
contained a 29-day February.

Historical names for February include the Anglo-Saxon terms Solmonath (mud month) and Kale-monath (named for
cabbage) as well as Charlemagne's designation Hornung. In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of
the pearl"; when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice.
In Ukrainian, the month is called лютий meaning the month of ice or hard frost.

Pronunciation
Many people pronounce the 'ru' of "February" /juː/ (pronunciation) (help·info) you rather than /ruː/ roo, as if it were
spelled "Feb-u-ary".[1] This comes about by analogy with "January" (which ends in "-uary" but not "-ruary"); as well
as by a dissimilation effect whereby having two "r"s close to each other causes one to change for ease of
pronunciation. The Scots language names for the month are Feberwary and Februar, the latter usually pronounced
with a long "ay" in the first syllable.

Patterns
February starts on the same day of the week as both March and November in common years, and August in leap
years.

Having only 28 days in common years, it is the only month of the year that can pass without a single full moon. It is
also the only month of the calendar that once every six years and twice every 11 years, will have only four full 7-day
weeks. Where the first day of the month starts on a Sunday and the last day ends on a Saturday, this was observed in
2009 and can be traced back 11 years to 1998, another 11 years back to 1987, and 6 years back to 1981; and so on
twice 11 years consecutively and once six years either forward into the future or back into the past. This works unless
the pattern is broken by a skipped leap year, but no leap year has been skipped since 1900 and no others will be
skipped until 2100. (Years that are evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also evenly divisible by
400, in which case they are leap years.[2][3]) A year of this kind would be a common year starting on Thursday. It
cannot happen in a leap year.

Events in February
 Parent Leadership Month
 Groundhog Day: February 2, United States and Canada
 Imbolc: February 2
 Independence of Sri Lanka: February 4
 1917 Constitution of Mexico: February 5
 Waitangi Day in New Zealand: February 6
 National Foundation Day in Japan: February 11
 Abraham Lincoln's birthday: February 12, United States
 G.N.Vivekananda's birthday: 1989 February 12, Punganuru India
 Lucia dos Santos died on February 13, 2005, at 97 years old
 Valentine's Day: February 14
 Flag Day of Canada: February 15
 Presidents Day (United States, third Monday)
 International Mother Language Day: February 21
 Independence Day in Saint Lucia: February 22
 George Washington's birthday: February 22, United States (often coincides with President's Day, see above)
 Flag Day of Mexico: February 24
 Eyes of winter: February 24
 People Power Revolution (Philippines) February 25
 Liberation Day (Kuwait) February 26
 Dominican Republic Independence: February 27
 Leap Day: February 29 (Every four years, with some exceptions)
 Black History Month (Canada and United States)
 National Day of the Sun (in Argentina)
 National Wear Red Day (in the US and the UK)

February symbols

The violet

 Its birth flower is the Viola (plant) and the Primrose.[4]

 Its birthstone is the amethyst.