Everything about February totally explained
February is the second
month of the
year in the
Julian and
Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month and the only month with fewer than 30
days. The month has 29 days in
leap years, when the year number is divisible by four (except for years that are divisible by 100 and not by 400 in the Gregorian calendar). In common years the month has 28 days. Some believe that February originally had 29 days (30 in a leap year), but that idea was invented by
Sacrobosco during the
Middle Ages.
See
Month lengths.
February starts on the same day of the week as both
March and
November in common years, and
August in leap years.
Having only 28 days in common years, it's the only month of the calendar that once every six years and twice every 11 years, will have only four full 7-day
weeks where the first day of the month starts on a
Sunday and the last day ends on a
Saturday. This pattern can be observed in
2009 and can be traced back 11 years to
1998, another 11 years back to
1987, and 6 years back to
1981; and so on twice 11 years consecutively and once six years either forward into the
future or back into the
past, unless the pattern is broken by a skipped leap year, but no leap year has been skipped since 1900 and no others will be skipped until 2100. A year of this kind would be a
common year starting on Thursday.
Overview
February was named after the Latin term
februum, which means
purification, via the purification ritual
Februa held on February 15 in the old
Roman calendar.
January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered
winter a monthless period. They were added by
Numa Pompilius about 700 BC. February remained the last month of the calendar year until the time of the
decemvirs (c. 450 BC), when it became the second month. At certain intervals Roman priests truncated February to 23 or 24 days and inserted a 27-day intercalary month,
Intercalaris, after February to realign the year with the
seasons. See
from Roman to Julian. Thereafter, it remained the second month of the calendar year, meaning the order that months are displayed (January, February, March, …, December) within a year-at-a-glance calendar. Even during the Middle Ages, when the numbered
Anno Domini year began on
March 25 or
December 25, February continued to be the second month whenever all twelve months were displayed in order.
February begins, astronomically speaking, with the sun in the constellation of
Capricornus and ends with the sun in the constellation of
Aquarius.
Astrologically speaking, February begins with the sun in the sign of
Aquarius and ends in the sign of
Pisces.
The
birthstone is the
amethyst, and the
birth flower is the
Violet.
Historical names for February include the
Anglo-Saxon terms Solmoneth (mud month) and Kale-monath (named for cabbage) as well as
Charlemagne's designation Hornung. In
Finnish, the month is called
helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl"; when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they're like pearls of ice.
Many people pronounce the 'u' of "February" as
you rather than /uː/
oo, by analogy with "January", which forces the first 'r' to be eclipsed,
viz. /ˈfɛbjuːɛri/
FEB-yoo-air-ee rather than /ˈfɛbruːəri/
FEB-roo-uh-ree. Otherwise, the flanking mid vowel ('e') and back vowel ('u'), combined with the final -ry syllable (front vowel 'ee') make the 'br' difficult for Anglophones to pronounce in the first place. The problem doesn't usually arise for
Scotiaphones, however. The
Scots language names for the month are
Feberwary and
Februar, the latter usually pronounced with a long "ay" vowel in the first syllable.
Events in February
Further Information
Get more info on 'February'.
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