why the month of February has 28 or 29 days.why not 30 or 31?

Answer 1

February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. It is the shortest Gregorian month and the only month with the length of 28 or 29 days. The month has 29 days in leap years, when the year number is divisible by four (except for years that are divisible by 100 and not by 400). In other years the month has 28 days. Leap year birthdays are usually celebrated on the 28th of a non-leap year. Some believe that February originally had 29 days (30 in a leap year) until the Roman Senate gave one of its days to the month of August (named after Augustus Caesar) to make it the same length as July. Many historians, though, think it always had 28 days, to even out the calendar. See:-Months in various calendars

February begins, astronomically speaking, with the sun in the constellation of Capricornus and ends with the sun in the constellation of Aquarius. Astrologically speaking, February begins with the sun in the sign of Aquarius and ends in the sign of Pisces.

February was named after the Latin term Februltus, which means "a righting of wrongs," as in the Roman calendar February was a month where purification rituals were to take place. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. This change was made by Numa Pompilius about 700 BC in order to bring the calendar in line with a standard lunar year. Numa's Februarius contained 29 days (30 in a leap year). Augustus is alleged to have removed one day from February and added it to August, (renamed from Sextilis to honor himself), so that Julius Caesar's July would not contain more days. However there is little historical evidence to support this claim.

February was nominally the last month of the Roman calendar, as the year originally began in March. At certain intervals Roman priests inserted an intercalary month, Mercedonius, after February to realign the year with the seasons.

Historical names for February include the Anglo-Saxon terms Solmoneth (mud month) and Kale-monath (named for cabbage) as well as Charlemagne's designation Hornung. In the old Japanese calendar, the month is called Kisaragi (如月, 絹更月 or 衣更月, literally meaning "the month changing clothes"). It is sometimes also called Mumetsuki (梅見月, literally meaning "the month that ume blossoms can be seen") or Konometsuki (木目月, literally meaning "the month that trees get new life"). In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl".

February is recognized as Black History Month in the United States and Canada.

"February" is pronounced without the first "r," as "Febuary," by many speakers. This is probably elision, or an analogical change influenced by "January".

Answer 2

The person who answered so that February would end soon is pretty close to the truth.

The Romans were basically an agricultural society and the calendar was mainly a tool to remember when to plant, harvest, etc. During the winter, between the months of December and March not much was happening anyways, so they apparently didn't keep track of the days.

When the calendar was reformed around 8 BC, they added two months to the end of the year -- January and February. At the time the year was thought to be 355 days, and since the Romans thought even numbers were unlucky, they made seven months of 29 days, and four of 31 days - but that meant they still needed an additional month of 28 days. Unlucky! So they made the last month in the middle of winter unlucky, because nobody liked poor February anyways.

It seems that when Julius Caesar later updated the calendar to 365 days, either he left it at 28 days, or he made it 29 days - and Augustus Caesar later took a day away to make August (named after him) 31 days long.

The only part of this story that doesn't quite make sense to me, is that if even numbers were unlucky why start out with one unlucky month of 28 days, and end up with four unlucky months of 30 days!? Or did the Romans become less superstitious?

Answer 3

January and February both date from about the time of Rome's founding. They were added to a calendar that had been divided into ten month-like periods whose lengths varied from 20 to 35 or more days. A winter season was not included, so those period lengths are believed to have been intended to reflect growth stages of crops and cattle.

When introduced, January was given 29 days and put at the beginning of the calendar year. February was given 23 days and put at the end. Then, for an undetermined period shortly after Rome's founding, months were said to have begun when a new moon was first sighted. At some later time, month lengths were separated from lunations and again became fixed. At that time, February's original length was extended by five days which gave it a total of 28.

Hope that helps

Answer 4

The earth goes a complete orbit around the sun for 365 day and 6 hours (that is why we have one extra day on Feb every four year 6 hour x 4 = 24 hours = one day) The month can not divided into equal numbered days because at a certain time in year the earth moves north pole (or south pole) close the the sun the warm it up. We choose that point of time as the point of the month. We can not make month even because it will change Winter/Summer/Spring/Fall every year. Hope it helps.

Answer 5

People new that the year is of 365 days (in fact little less than 365.25 days.) So it was natural to have the last month with lesser days. ( And also add an extra day at the end of the year, in case of the leap year. ). As pointed by the other answerer, the year used to start in March and end in February. That is the reason why February was used for corrections. The fact that the year used to begin in March can still be observed by looking at the names of some of the months. e.g. September(Septa - 7), October(Oct-8), Decemeber(Deca-10) etc.

Answer 6

Because each year has 365 1/4 days. Each four years a day is added (Feb 29) to make up for the fractional day. One complete rotation of the earth around the sun is 365 1/4 days. Adding a day to February keeps the Calender synchronised with the real seasonal and celestial events, like the first day of spring. Otherwise the first day of spring would drift to earlier dates, flowers would bloom in November and winter would begin in June (on the North American Continent).

Answer 7

Every four years, is a leap year. So when there is a leap year, February has 29 days. The other 3 years, February has 28 days. I hope this helped..click this link, for more information
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/LeapYear.html

Answer 8

Ask someone who is Greek. I think they made the calendar. I'd assume that it's some way of compensating to get the correct number of days in a year without getting off. It may also help the four seasons land at the right times also.

Answer 9

so that atleast february could end soon and i could go to next month and end my year..soon two days ahead!!