FEBRUARY THE MONTH OF LOVE

If I may ask, why do February have 28days and after every 4 years 29days? It’s something I have always been curious to find out. In the course of arriving at a satisfying answer I came across the history which to me seemed complex. Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis (5), Sextilis (60, Septembris (7), Octobris (8), Novembris (9), Decembris (10) were the months existing then.

The first four was named after the roman gods while the remaining six where named based of the position they occupied. To them everything had a meaning. The popular poem 30 days have September, April, June and November all the rest have 31 days except February which has 28 days and 29 days in a leap year was after some additions have been made. Theirs was 30 days have Aprilis, Junius, Sextilis, and Septembris all the rest have 31 days except February which got the short stick because it’s cold and nobody likes it. Numa later revised the number of days because the romans believed even numbers are evil and unlucky so he tried to make the numbers odd and were as follows Martius (31), Aprilis (29), Maius(31), Junius(29), Quintilis(31), Sextilis(29), Septembris(29), Octobris(31), Novembris(29), Decembris(29). Some days could not be accounted.

for because they didn’t name any month during the winter period probably because nobody cared about it. But surprisingly planters and harvesters used the calendar. It was obvious that the calendar was incompetent which led to the addition of two extra month Januarius(29) the eleventh month and Februarius(28) the last month of the year and the shortest because 28 which was an even number was seen as evil. It was named after a So nobody really cared. Julius Caesar came into power in 49BC.

He wasn’t satisfied with the 355days calendar and thus added 10 days more to Numa’s calendar. Two days were added to Januarius, Sextilis(August), December and a day to April, June, September and November. I later discovered during this research that the Romans couldn’t do anything without referring to myths and superstition. I know am not the only one that have been thinking along this lane but anyway am sure a lot of people have been cleared. Save the thanks for later.