I recall seeing an ad in which a kid asks his mother, “Why does February have only 28 days?”
The mother shrugs and isn’t able to answer.
That ad gave an impression as though the question the kid had raised was one of nature’s greatest mysteries.
Everyone knows February has only 28 days (except in leap years), but very few people seem to know why.
There are varying explanations, but this is one of them, an interesting one.
It goes back to this guy, whom all of us have heard of.
As well as his successor, whom less people seem to have heard of – Augustus Caesar.
Though Augustus was a great King in his own right- it’s not wrong to say that “finding Rome of clay, he left her of marble.”
So, the Romans started with a calendar of around 300 days because winter wasn’t important enough to be counted. When someone finally decided to include winter, the calendar was estimated at 355 days.
Obviously, every year it went further and further off, forcing priests to add leap months simply to keep the calendar on track with the seasons.
Enter Julius Caesar to solve this major embarrassment – yet another of his many achievements that are less renowned, such as the Caesar cipher and the Gallic War commentaries used to teach Latin . With the help of experts, the Julian calendar was created, 365 days long. Months probably alternated with 31 and 30 days; February drew the short straw (29).
A grateful senate named the month of July after Julius.
But Augustus was no less a Caesar than Julius Caesar. And senators, eager to curry favour, named a month after him as well. We call it August.
But August couldn’t have less days than July – that would mean Augustus was less than Julius. So one day had to be added to August – once again, February was the one who had to give up a day.
I always wondered why months alternated from 31 to 30 (excluding February) except when we got to July and August. This isn’t a bad explanation for that.
A year is 365.24 days long though, so over the next sixteen centuries the calendar became slightly skewed. Later on, around the year 1583, Pope Gregory XII came up with the Gregorian calendar which we still use – and the leap year was born, partially restoring February its due. This calendar isn’t perfect, but none of us will notice the error in our lifetimes.
This is just an example of something everyone knows exists, but a lot of people don’t know why it is so.
There’s always a why when we’re dealing with a human creation like the calendar.