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Why does February have 28 days?
Information
Video published by It's Okay To Be Smart
In this video from the YouTube channel "It's Okay To Be Smart", meaning exactly that, Joe Hanson explains why the month of February has only 28 days.
In short, it goes back to Roman times, when they invented the calendar so they could keep track of the different annual festivals. Astronomers first divided the year according to the phases of the moon into 10 months, with an undefined part between December and March.
After many calendar adjustments over the years, they eventually settled on a clear count of 365.242 days per year. It is also likely that the cycle ran from March to February, not from January to December as it does today.
So they alternated months of 30 and 31 days, and for the last month of the year they used the remaining number of days needed to fill the cycle, 28 days or more, to line up with the equinox.
In short, February was the crappy month that filled in the rest of the year.
Why does February have 28 days?
Information
Video published by It's Okay To Be Smart
In this video from the YouTube channel "It's Okay To Be Smart", meaning exactly that, Joe Hanson explains why the month of February has only 28 days.
In short, it goes back to Roman times, when they invented the calendar so they could keep track of the different annual festivals. Astronomers first divided the year according to the phases of the moon into 10 months, with an undefined part between December and March.
After many calendar adjustments over the years, they eventually settled on a clear count of 365.242 days per year. It is also likely that the cycle ran from March to February, not from January to December as it does today.
So they alternated months of 30 and 31 days, and for the last month of the year they used the remaining number of days needed to fill the cycle, 28 days or more, to line up with the equinox.
In short, February was the crappy month that filled in the rest of the year.
Why does February have 28 days?
Information
Video published by It's Okay To Be Smart
In this video from the YouTube channel "It's Okay To Be Smart", meaning exactly that, Joe Hanson explains why the month of February has only 28 days.
In short, it goes back to Roman times, when they invented the calendar so they could keep track of the different annual festivals. Astronomers first divided the year according to the phases of the moon into 10 months, with an undefined part between December and March.
After many calendar adjustments over the years, they eventually settled on a clear count of 365.242 days per year. It is also likely that the cycle ran from March to February, not from January to December as it does today.
So they alternated months of 30 and 31 days, and for the last month of the year they used the remaining number of days needed to fill the cycle, 28 days or more, to line up with the equinox.
In short, February was the crappy month that filled in the rest of the year.
