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· 17 Dec 2021

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Why February is of 28 days?

Each month in contemporary Gregorian calendar has at least 28 days. That number would have been a lovely round 30 if it hadn't been for February. Except for the second month of the calendar, which has at least 30 days, the month of February has only 28 or 29 if it's a leap year. So, why is the world's most frequently used calendar so variable in its month lengths? And why is February the month with the fewest days? It's all down to Roman superstition.

The very first Roman calendar, the Gregorian calendar's earliest parent, had a striking divergence in structure from later variants: it had 10 months instead of 12. Numa Pompilius, the Roman monarch, added February and January to the original ten months in order to perfectly align the calendar with the lunar year. There were 6 months of exactly 30 days plus 4 months of 31 days in the previous calendar, for a cumulative of 304 days.

Numa, on the other hand, avoided using even numerals in his calendar because Roman belief claimed that even numbers seemed unlucky at the time. To make the months 29, he eliminated one day from every one of the 30-day months. The lunar year is 355 days long (really 354.367, but naming it 354 was going to have rendered the entire year unlucky! ), so he only had 56 days left to deal with. Finally, at least one month out of the twelve had to have an even length of time. This is due to a simple mathematical essence: the sum of any even number of odd numbers (12 months) will always match an even number—therefore he desired an odd total. As a result, Numa chose February as the unfortunate 28-day month, a month which would host Roman rites honoring the dead.

Despite changes to the calendar following Numa's additions, such as the reduction of February at particular intervals, the inclusion of the leap month, and ultimately the modern leap day, February's 28-day length has remained constant.

Why was the year 355 days lengthy at first?
The lunar cycle is 364.3 days long, however, it was adjusted to 355 days to avoid becoming unlucky. Every four years, a leap of exactly 27 days in the month of February would be required to restore the 0.75 of a day. The seasons began to slip out of harmony with the days and months when the alignment didn't add up.

Until Julius Caesar ordered an expert of the sun to design a calendar reflecting the sun's cycle (solar) in 45 BC, there were exactly 355 days in the year. Except for February, the Julian Calendar incorporated a little over 10 days to every year, giving each month 30 or 31 days long.
However, because there was still a partial day remaining, the days were adjusted up to 29 every four years, resulting in the leap year. This is no longer the name of the Julian calendar; instead, it is now known as the Georgian calendar.