Why Does February Only Have 28 Days?
- 5 years ago
Why Does February
Only Have 28 Days? Around 800 BCE, the Romans
used the Calendar of Romulus,
which only had 10 months. January and February didn't exist. According to their calendar, a year
only had 304 days because winter
was considered worthless by farmers. King Numa Pompilius decided
to change that in 713 BCE. He reorganized the calendar to reflect the year's
12 lunar cycles (355 days) and added January
and February to the end of the year. Due to Roman's
being superstitious
about even numbers, Eventually, things fell out of sync,
prompting the Romans to periodically claim
a 27-day leap month, known as Mercedonius. Nobody could keep up with the
randomness of Mercedonius,
which caused mass confusion. By the time Julius Caesar had his reign,
he decided enough was enough and
restructured the calendar once again. He charted the new calendar by the sun,
adding up to 365 days, and moved February
to the beginning instead of the end. For whatever reason, he kept
February at only 28 days. Maybe he just
couldn't wait for spring
like the rest of us.
Only Have 28 Days? Around 800 BCE, the Romans
used the Calendar of Romulus,
which only had 10 months. January and February didn't exist. According to their calendar, a year
only had 304 days because winter
was considered worthless by farmers. King Numa Pompilius decided
to change that in 713 BCE. He reorganized the calendar to reflect the year's
12 lunar cycles (355 days) and added January
and February to the end of the year. Due to Roman's
being superstitious
about even numbers, Eventually, things fell out of sync,
prompting the Romans to periodically claim
a 27-day leap month, known as Mercedonius. Nobody could keep up with the
randomness of Mercedonius,
which caused mass confusion. By the time Julius Caesar had his reign,
he decided enough was enough and
restructured the calendar once again. He charted the new calendar by the sun,
adding up to 365 days, and moved February
to the beginning instead of the end. For whatever reason, he kept
February at only 28 days. Maybe he just
couldn't wait for spring
like the rest of us.