In our calendar system, how did February come to have only 28 days?

Answer 1

Well, a long time ago, Augustus Caesar didn't like the fact that Julius Caesar's month (July) had 31 days and his (August) had only 30, so he "stole" a day from February to make August have 31.

Answer 2

Blame the Romans. After the death of Julius Caesar (who was never actually emperor but who laid the groundwork for his nephew Octavius), he was made into a god and the month we now know as July was named after him. Later, after Octavius took on the name of Augustus, the following month was named after HIM.

Until that time, all months either had 30 days or 31 days to make up the 365-day calendar. A little math indicates that you'd have to have 7 30-day months and 5 31-day months to make this work. So how did we end up with seven months of 31 days, four months of 30 days, and poor little February?

It's because the Romans wanted Julius and Augustus to have BIG months, not little piddly 30-day months. But to do that, they'd have to steal a day each from one of the long months. The problem was, most of the months were named after gods and goddesses. Couldn't take a day from March, because Mars was the god of war; couldn't take it from May, because Maia was the ancient earth goddess; couldn't take it from January, which was named after Janus, the two-headed god who watches over gates, and so on. What to do?

They settled on poor February. February, it turns out, is not named after a god, but after the februa -- strips of goat-hide which were used in an ancient Roman fertility ritual called the Lupercalia. In the Lupercalia, goats and a dog were sacrificed by special priests called luperci; after the sacrifice, selected men would run through the streets wearing loin cloths, lashing everyone they met with the goatskin strips and laughing. In particular, women who were lashed with these goatskin strips took it as a good-luck charm for fertility and especially for easy childbirth. There was also a good deal of drinking and no doubt a lot of, ah, testing out the whole fertility thing.

So the Romans decided that it wouldn't offend any major deities if they snipped a couple of days off of February to the greater glory of the Divine Julius and the Divine Augustus. The calendar thus created was called the Julian calendar, and you can by now probably guess who it's named after.

Answer 3

To confuse the f**k out of everyone, I mean 30 days in some months 31 in others then every 4 years we'll have 29 days in February, and just to be kind we'll change the time twice a year to really screw people up..

Sorry, I've waited so long to moan about this!

Thanks for the opportunity :D

Answer 4

cuz they knew that would be African American month