Why February? Exploring the Shortest Month's Secret
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Why February is the Shortest Month of the Year
Why February Is Short
Why February? Exploring the Shortest Month's Secret
Have you ever wondered why February is the shortest month of the year and why, at all, our calendar looks the way it does?
To understand this, let's go back to 46 BC, when the calendar as we know it today was invented by Julius Caesar, who was the Roman dictator at the time.
Before his reforms, the Roman calendar was in use. It was based on lunar cycles and consisted of ten months, totaling 304 days, which caused it to fall out of sync with the solar year. This discrepancy led to irregularities in seasons and agricultural practices, prompting the need for adjustments to keep the calendar aligned with the natural cycle of seasons.
Julius Caesar consulted with various experts and astronomers, including the Greek astronomer Sosigenes, to create the Julian calendar.
He was the one who determined that the year would consist of 12 months and 365 days. Since the total number of days in the year doesn't divide evenly, and since he was born in the seventh month, and since the Romans believed that even numbers bring bad luck, he decided that his month, and actually all the odd-numbered months such as January, March, May, and so forth would have 31 days, while the even-numbered months like April, June, August, and so on would have 30 days.
However, one month would have to be shorter than the others, so he decided it would be February, since it holds less significance due to the lack of holidays or religious ceremonies associated with that period. He also added leap years to better synchronize the calendar with the solar year, which made February have 29 days in a regular year and 30 days in a leap year.
before Julius Caesar's time, the month of July was known as "Quintilis" in Latin, meaning the fifth month in the Roman calendar. However, in 44 B.C., the Roman Senate renamed the month "Julius" in honor of Julius Caesar, who was born on July 12th. This renaming occurred after Julius Caesar's assassination.
his changes it remained so until the year 33 BC when Augustus Caesar took over. He didn't like the idea that Julius Caesar had a month named after him while he didn't, especially considering that Julius' month was longer than the one Augustus was born in. So he decided to make some changes to the calendar. He renamed the eighth month from "Sextilis" to August and took one day from February, adding it to August, so it would also have 31 days like July. February was then left with 28 days instead of 29 in regular years. And this set the calendar as we know it today.
And that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed this video. Thank you, and stay tuned.
Wow that's interesting 🤔
dear friend thank you for your comment, and it is interesting indeed.