It's February? Where did January go?

February is the shortest month of the year, but many people have no idea why that is.
As I flipped my work calendar to the month of February I immediately thought to myself “Where did the month of January go?” Our newspaper had just named the First Baby of the Year, and it seemed like we just printed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations, and our annual Bridal edition, January flew by.
February is here and is fewer than 30 days.
February is a month of love as Valentine’s Day is celebrated on the 14th, and I am proud to “toot” my horn as today is my youngest daughter Megan’s birthday!
February is the only month to have fewer than 30 days, but there is no scientific reason behind that distinction, though there have been various changes to the calendar throughout the centuries, and eventually February became what it is today.
The Romans developed a 10 month calendar that began with the Spring equinox in March and ended in December. There is belief that what is now February was overlooked when this calendar was created, as winter weather had little to do with the harvest in the northern hemisphere, where Rome is located. Romans essentially considered the winter a period of time with no distinctive months.
When the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, took to the throne in 713 BC, he had plans to make the calendar more accurate by synchronizing it with the actual lunar year, which is roughly 354 days long. Thus, two new months, January and February, were added to the end of the calendar. Both January and February had 28 days.
At the time, even numbers were considered bad luck, and these months were not looked upon favorably by the king. So he decided to make changes once more and added a day to January to make it 29 days long. February was left untouched, remaining an “unlucky” month and one devoted to honoring the dead and performing rites of purification, as the word February comes from februare, which means “to purify.” February remained the last month of the year for roughly 200 years until the calendar was reevaluated and February was reassigned as the second month, with January being the start of the new year.
This new 355-day calendar simply could not stay in sync with the seasons because it did not account for the amount of time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun. Therefore, an extra “month” of 27 days was added after February 23 each year to play catch-up. Sometimes this extra month was overlooked or not scheduled in time, continuing the calendar conundrum..

Accent Editor Myra Miller can be reached at myra.miller@eunicetoday.com