“Why, My Child, is February so short?”
“Daddy Dear, I know the answer true. We learned the poem in school, from Mother Goose.
“Thirty days have November,
“April, June and September.
“All the rest have 31,
“Except February alone,
“And that has 28 days clear,
“And 29 in a leap year.”
“But, Daughter Dearest, why only 28? What is the reason for that?”
“Alas, My Father, I know not the answer to your question.”
Romulus, Numa Pompilius and Caesar did.
On March 27/28, 771 BC, in what is modern-day Italy, the twins Romulus and Remus were born of Martian or Herculean descent. Their Olympian origins were discovered by the bad King Amulius who had the twins thrown into the Tiber River to drown. The River Tiber did not agree with Amulius’ pronouncement and carried the babies to the protection of a mother wolf and a woodpecker who fed the boys and a shepherd and his wife who raised the twins to manhood. Grown, the twins returned, deposed Amulius and decided to found a new city. On April 21, 753 BC, Romulus founded that city on the Palatine Hill, named it Rome after himself and became its first king.
Legend has it that King Romulus wanted a calendar to record his exploits, like founding a city and starting an empire. So, he developed the first lunar, based-on-the-moon, calendar. That first lunar calendar started in March and ended in December. The ancient Romans considered the winter time between December and March to be a monthless period, because from an agricultural perspective (and they were an agrarian culture before their legions starting conquering the world), nothing much was happening during those chilly winter days, except waiting for warmer weather.
Wait. There was this very old festival of Februarlia which occurred around the full moon before the month of March. It was the rainy season in Rome, and a good time to dust, clean and attend to the washing that had built up over the winter. I guess you could call it the festival of spring cleaning. In any event, the domus smelled better afterwards.
In 715 BC, Numa Pompilius succeeded Romulus and became the second King of Rome. Numa was a thinker. Rome was growing, and there was more to keep track of, even during the chilly days of monthless winter. Numa Pompilius thought, and he thought, and finally he said, “We need more months.” A royal Roman committee was formed, and two new months were chosen: the first Ianuarius (January) and the second Februarius (February), named after all that nice smelling fresh linen.
The committee members put all the days left in the year in a pot, and it was about 57 – 29 for one and 28 for the other. “Who gets more?” they said to each other. They gave Numa a Romulus coin and said, “You flip.” He did, Numa Pompilius flipped the coin, and January got 29 — at that time. February got the 28, an uneven number. Uneven numbers were considered unlucky by the Romans, but that’s the way the denarius (coin) bounces and the itrion (honey cookie) crumbles – as they say in Rome.
Year later, in 46 BC, Julius Caesar had finished his conquests of Gaul and Britain and was settling into the Forum, when he noticed that old Lunar calendar of Romulus and Numa Pompilius wasn’t working so well. Caesar liked things to run smoothly. Every leap year, February was even shorter (23 or 24 days, “Ugh”) and you had to add a whole leap month of Intercalarius (“Huh”) after February to line things back up. “Very untidy,” the Conqueror of the world thought. “Something must be done about this. Those Egyptians I subjugated had a solar calendar that seemed much neater. Why not try that?”
He did. Caesar did it.
In 45 BC, the new Julian Sun Calendar took effect. Copies were handed out by insurance agents throughout the Empire. No messy leap months squeezing February and confusing the royal tax collectors. The months were evened and balanced quite nicely.
“Thirty days have November,
“April, June and September.
“All the rest have 31,
“Except February alone,
“And that has 28 days clear,
“And 29 in a leap year.”
“A nice touch,” the Imperial Caesar adjusted his laurel crown. “I like leaving February at 28, and only one leap day every four years. Quite manageable. Maybe February’s not that unlucky after all. You know, I always thought March had an unlucky feel to it, especially the Ides. The Ides of March gives me the shivers. Don’t know why? I’ll have to ask Brutus about that.”
And now you know the rest of the story.
Enjoy the rest of your February.
Don’t worry about March.
The Ides will arrive.
Soon enough.
Grandpa Jim