February is an interesting month, to say the least. For many, it also has one rainy or snowy day too many. And that's not even mentioning that funny little thing called a leap year. February is the only month where the number of days can change according to the year.
Much like with all good stories these days, the reason February is so short starts with a throwback — a very, very far throwback. The Romans were pretty much obsessed with time and figuring out ways they could use it to their advantage. They were so invested in harvesting and planting that they built their month calendar around it.
Obviously, the Romans just weren't that into January and February. The wintertime just wasn't important to them because there couldn't be a harvest in that time period and the Romans based their time around when they could harvest, which was began in March and ended in December — hence, the month calendar.
While the month calendar was credited to the original king of Rome, Romulus which is why it was known as the Romulus or Roman calendar , the second king of Rome was not feeling this idea. King Numa Pompilius thought it made more sense to align the months with the 12 lunar cycles throughout the year, thus January and February were born.
The 12 lunar cycles came to a total of days, and Numa attempted to make each month end on odd numbers. Sort of. Related Items February history mayan calendar. Katrina Thomas Katrina is an OBcean that spends her time drinking quality coffee and engaging in the community that she lives in.
You may also like The Mysterious History of the Fortune Cookie. Walk Through History at Liberty Station. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Follow us…. Subscribe Today! Numa set aside the month of February a religious festival of purification. February was the only month established to have 28 days. The remaining months of the year had either 29 days or 31 days, so that the cycle of the Moon's phases would coincide with the months.
When Julius Caesar became dictator of Rome, he instituted the Julian Calendar, which was a true solar calendar based on the annual cycle of the Sun through the seasons of the year. In order to bring Numa's lunar calendar into agreement with the Sun's annual cycle, 10 extra days were distributed among the months. However, no extra days were added to February so as to not affect the pagan rituals performed during this month. So February remained a month of 28 days.
Caesar's new calendar required an extra intercalated day every four years; he decreed that this day fall within February. And so we still to this day celebrate the "leap year" at the end of February. Ironically, even though Numa's pagan festival has not been celebrated for centuries, our modern calendar still preserves this cultural remnant in the short month of February.
Caesar was born in the month of Quintilis. When Mark Antony was consul of Rome, he honored Caesar by renaming the fifth month of the Roman calendar, changing its name from "Quintilis" to "Julius.
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