Happy February :)

This very moment....

 

While almost at the verge of retiring to the bed, I wished Abhay 'Happy February' and the reply was - 'Why is this month shorter than the rest?

That's a good question indeed! Why did I never read about it ?? I immediately got a sudden rush of energy in my body and I crazily started to read about it :) And I came across few theories and I don't know what the real reason truly is... however it was fun reading them all and I don't really care what the reason really was ....after all this is the only month when I get my salary early....So, who is complaining here? ;)

So!! Why is February shorter ? Let me share the one which I thought was worth believing :)

The Roman calendar was first established by the legendary Romulus, who founded the city of Rome in 753 B.C. For some reason, Romulus established a calendar that originally had 10 months and began in March.

Students of Latin will appreciate that "Septembris" would be the seventh month, after the Latin word "septem," meaning "seven." Similarly, October, November and December would have been the eighth, ninth and tenth months, after "octo" (8), "novem" (9), and "decem" (10). The months before September were named "Quintilis," the fifth month and "Sextilis," the sixth month.

The successor of Romulus was Numa, king of Rome. Numa changed the calendar of Romulus into a proper lunar calendar, based on counting cycles of the Moon's phases. Numa added the months January and February to the Roman calendar.
But for some reason he placed these months at the beginning of the year, thereby messing up the numbering of the months for all posterity.

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." And Caesar is still remembered to this day in his month of "July."

Julius Caesar was succeeded by his nephew Octavian, who we know better under the name of Caesar Augustus. We read in Luke 2:1 that this same Roman Emperor decreed "that all the world should be taxed," thereby bringing Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. In honor of his own exploits, the Roman Senate decreed that the sixth month "Sextilis" be renamed "Augustus." And this month has been called "August" ever since..

(Credit : http://www.crosswalk.com/family/homeschool/teaching-moment-why-is-february-so-short-1185232.html)