February is always a bit of an uneventful month, isn’t it? Post-new year buzz; pre-springtime joy, it always passes by without much excitement. Which makes it lucky that it’s our shortest month. But why does it only have 28 days when all the other months have 30 or 31?
Well… apparently our modern calendar is loosely based on the Roman’s calendar. Originally Romulus, the first king of Rome, created a 10-month calendar that begin in March and ended in December. His successor, Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, then decided to fine-tune the idea by synching it with the actual Lunar year, which was then thought to have 355 days.
Roman superstition held that even numbers were unlucky. Therefore, Numa reorganised the number of days in each month so that they would each have an odd number. In order to reach the 355 days, one month had to have an even number. February was chosen and, as it was an unlucky month, it became the month that they held Roman rituals honouring the dead.
Days have been added to all of the other months but February has remained the same, apart from every four years when it gains a leap day. But that’s another story…
We hope February hasn’t been unlucky for you! However, at Munchachos HQ we are very much looking forward to bursting into the spring and getting a bit of much-needed sunshine!!
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