Why is February so short?

A long time ago, a guy named Romulus, who I'm certain existed, founded Rome, and codified the calender:

Martius (31 days)
Aprilis (30 days)
Maius (31 days)
Iunius (30 days)
Quintilis (31 days)
Sextilis (30 days)
September (30 days)
October (31 days)
November (30 days)
December (30 days)
total (304 days)

Winter, of course, had no months. They just started March when springtime came.

Then, his son, Numa Pompilius, fixed everything!

First, he decided that all days deserve a month!

Second, he made the year 354 days long! A lunar cycle is 29.5 days, so if the months average 29.5 days, that adds up to 354. That's pretty cool, but they did have to add an entire month during leap years...

Third,
He also took the opportunity to change the amount of days in each month. Because odd numbers are lucky and even numbers are bad omens, all of the days with thirty days were reduced to 29. This left 57 to distribute between the new months, Ianuarius and Februarius. 29 went to January and 28 to February, the only month with an even amount of days. February was a month when Romans honored the dead and performed rites of purification - Overall, it was generally "dark", and presumably OK to be the one with an even number of days.

Iaunuarius (29 days)
Februarius (28 days, sometimes 23)
Mensis Intercalaris (leap month, 23 or 24 days)
Martius (31 days)
Aprilis (29 days)
Maius (31 days)
Iunius (29 days)
Quintilis (31 days)
Sextilis (29 days)
September (29 days)
October (31 days)
November (29 days)
December (29 days)
total (354 days)


The religious year started on the 24th day of February.
when leap years occurred, February was 23 days long, followed by the leap month. The next year started on March 1.

By the time Julius Caesar came around, everything was all messed up, people lost track of when the leap years should happen. Not only was the calendar generally unstable, politicians controlled the calendars and began to omit leap years, to elongate terms in office, for instance. It is well documented that over the turbulent decades leading up to Caesar's calender, January had shifted all the way to early autumn.

So the big man decided to do something about it. Julius decided that a solar calender would be better than a lunar calender. he had to add 11 days to the 354 day calender to get it up to 365. so, he brought the totals up to 31s and 30s, with the exception of February, because the religious year began on the 24th, and you can't change that around. Bottom line - don't mess with FEBRUARY

-p

Caesar's Calender:
(or just look at the one on your wall)


btw, it was Augustus who changed quintilis and sextilis to july and august