Posted on 02/03/2025 8:11:40 PM PST by Red Badger
Each month in the modern Gregorian calendar consists of at least 28 days. That number would be a nicely rounded 30 were it not for February. While every month besides the second in the calendar contains at least 30 days, February falls short with 28 (and 29 on a leap year). So why is the most widely used calendar in the world so inconsistent in the lengths of its months? And why is February stuck with the fewest number of days? Blame it on Roman superstition.
The Gregorian calendar’s oldest ancestor, the first Roman calendar, had a glaring difference in structure from its later variants: it consisted of 10 months rather than 12. In order to fully sync the calendar with the lunar year, the Roman king Numa Pompilius added January and February to the original 10 months. The previous calendar had had 6 months of 30 days and 4 months of 31, for a total of 304 days. However, Numa wanted to avoid having even numbers in his calendar, as Roman superstition at the time held that even numbers were unlucky. He subtracted a day from each of the 30-day months to make them 29. The lunar year consists of 355 days (354.367 to be exact, but calling it 354 would have made the whole year unlucky!), which meant that he now had 56 days left to work with. In the end, at least 1 month out of the 12 needed to contain an even number of days. This is because of simple mathematical fact: the sum of any even amount (12 months) of odd numbers will always equal an even number—and he wanted the total to be odd. So Numa chose February, a month that would be host to Roman rituals honoring the dead, as the unlucky month to consist of 28 days.
Despite changes in the calendar as it was altered after Numa’s additions—alterations that include the shortening of February at certain intervals, the addition of a leap month, and eventually the modern leap day—February’s 28-day length has stuck.
I’m in favor of short Februarys. It’s COLD!!!
I’m in favor of short Februarys. It’s COLD!!!
Don’t like the extra hour of sunlight. Burns my grass.
This doesn’t take into account the inherent weirdness of February.
Leap year.
That is the yearly Solar cycle being about 6 hours longer than the given 365 days.
So a day has to be added every 4 years.
Always was fascinated thinking about people who were born on a leap year extra day.
Very clever!
This Guy seconds that emotion.
My wife just squeaked by. FEB 27.
(and myself)
The best option is the calendar of the bible
Currently, every month has at least 29 days, to match the moon’s cycle.
1 Day of the New Month(new moon)
24 work days
4 Sabbath days
Add another new moon(30th) for half the months.
When the Kingdom comes, it’ll make sense why He taught Israel to tell time like this and why they don’t today is partly because they ignore the 1st day and don’t have the Lamb, as slain, in the middle of the 24 elders or the 4 Beasts,like in Revelation.
My sister was born, Feb 29, 1952. I still remember her being brought home on the High Plains. Again, Feb 29, 1952.
So your sister is only 18 year old now?..............😁
So your sister is only 18 year old now?..............😁
My sister’s birthday is Feb 27.
Here is a strange one: My friend has twin daughters that were born on Feb 29. Imagine the statistical probability of that.
One related fact that I’ve always found to be interesting.... Because of the ‘drift’ in the Julian calendar over the years, 10 days were removed from the Gregorian calendar when it was introduced in 1582. What this meant was that Oct. 4, 1582 was the last day of the Julian calendar and the next day was October 15, 1582 in the Gregorian calendar. This change corrected the ‘drift’ that had happened over the years and the date shift meant that vernal equinox once again happened on March 21. Why was March 21 selected you may ask? Well, the Catholic church had a lot to do with the entire makeup of the calendar and March 21 was the date of the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.
Also for the record, the Gregorian calendar also has some drift to it... but that is only about one day every 3,030 years.
I think daylight savings time stems from an old politician superstition.
Thanks Red Badger.
February 2025Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
The calendar adjustment happened at various times in different countries, which must have been a little nuts. In the British dominion the adjustment was made in the mid-18th century.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mystery-behind-january-1st-1753-syed-imad-husain
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html?country=9&month=9&year=1752
Because the original calendar maker wanted to cut days in the middle of winter so that spring and summer would come 3 days earlier.
The Julian calendar used a 365 1/4 day year length; the sidereal year is 365.242198 days long. This led to the Christian holidays getting out of whack. That’s the reason for the change in the calendar.
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