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Why Is February Shorter Than Every Other Month?

Why didn’t any of the scientists think against the superstition of Numa Pompilius? 

It’s something I keep wondering about after I googled, like why does February have 28 or 29 days? Now here is what I found. The word 'February' comes from the Latin word Februarius, which means 'of Februa.' Februa was a Roman festival of purification that took place around the full moon in February. Before the Julian calendar and before the Gregorian calendar, the Romans had a completely different mess on their hands. Their calendar had only ten months, with six months of 30 days and four of 31, making a grand total of 304 days. But the Romans had a deep-rooted fear of even numbers, considering them unlucky. Then came Numa Pompilius, Rome’s second king, ready to fix this chaos without stepping on any superstitions.

So what did he do? He cut all 30-day months down to 29, leaving 56 extra days. To balance things out, he created January and February, bringing the count to twelve months. But at least one month had to be even because twelve odd numbers still add up to an even total. Since February was already linked to rituals for the dead, it was declared unlucky and given 28 days.

And so, February remained untouched even as time marched on. But then, the question hit me. Why leap years? A year is not exactly 365 days. The Earth actually takes 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds to orbit the Sun. Ignoring that extra time would slowly shift the seasons, making summer fall in December or winter in June. To fix this, an extra day was added to February every four years. But here’s the twist. The extra time is not exactly six hours per year, it is slightly less. If we blindly added a leap day every four years, we would gain 44 extra minutes over time. To prevent this, the rule was set. A year is a leap year if it is divisible by 4 but if it is also divisible by 100, it is skipped unless it is also divisible by 400. That is why 2000 was a leap year but 2100 will not be.

Now why is it called a leap year? A normal year has 52 weeks and one extra day so if your birthday falls on a Monday this year, it will be on a Tuesday the next. But in a leap year, the extra day in February shifts everything forward by two days. However, those born in January and February experience this shift in the year after a leap year while everyone else feels it during the leap year itself. Now to the question of mine "Why didn’t any of the scientists think against the superstition of Numa Pompilius?" what I could think of was superstition may have played a role, but science quietly adapted around it rather than directly opposing it.

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