Learn English with Videos – Why does February have 28 days?

It’s almost the end of February! And so we thought it was appropriate to share a video with you that explains why February has 28 or 29 days, instead of 30 or 31.

This is a great way to improve your listening skills, learn new vocabulary and discover fascinating facts about the world. Here are the simple steps to learn as much as possible:

1. Read the text
2. Understand the vocabulary
3. Watch the video

Text

Although February 2015 might fit perfectly on the page every year it’s the runt of  the monthly litter. This deficit of days, this calendar craziness, this oddity of the annum, like so much of modern culture, is the Romans’ fault. Here’s the crazy story of why February has 28 days… except when it doesn’t. 

Romulus, the maybe-mythical, maybe-real founder and first king of Rome, had a problem. With an increasing number of festivals, feasts, military ceremonies, and religious celebrations to keep track of, Romans needed a calendar to organize all of them. Ancient astronomers already had accurate calculations for the time between two solar equinoxes or solstices, but nature had given people a nice, easy pie chart in the sky to track the passage of time, so early Rome, like many other cultures, worked off a lunar calendar.

The calendar of the Romulan republic had ten months of either 30 or 31 days, beginning in March and ending in December, and we can still see traces of that calendar today. Problem was, that year was a few days short of four seasons. Romans were too busy not dying during winter to count those 61 and a quarter extra days… they’d just start the next year on the new moon before the spring equinox.

It’s actually not a bad system, as long as you don’t have to figure out what day it is between December and March.

So, the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, tried something else. Even numbers were bad luck in Ancient Rome, so Numa started by removing a day from all of the even numbered-months. And being loony for Luna, Numa wanted his calendar to cover 12 cycles of the moon, but that would have been an even number, so he rounded his year up to 355. Numa split the remaining days into two months and tacked them on to the end of the year. And that’s how February got 28 days. Yes, it’s an even number, but since the month was dedicated to spiritual purification, Romans let that one slide.

But, as powerful as Rome may have been, they couldn’t change the rules of the universe, and neither of these calendars add up anywhere close to the time it takes us to orbit the sun. After a few years, the seasons are out of whack with the months, dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria. Did we already use that joke?

This is where it gets even weirder. See, February was actually split in two parts. The first 23 days and… the rest. Every year, Numa’s superstitious calendar would be out of line with the seasons by a little more than 10 days. So every other year, the last few days of February were ignored and a 27-seven leap month was added after February 23rd or 24th. This way, every four years would average out to 366 and a quarter days… which is still too many days, but hey, we’re getting there.

Confused? You should be. Numa! This system could have worked, every 19 years, lunar and solar calendars tend to line up, so add enough leap months to keep the seasons in order and eventually everything will reset itself.

Except, these leap months weren’t always added according to plan. Politicians would ask for leap months to extend their terms or “forget” them to get their opponents out of office. And if Rome was at war, sometimes the leap month would be forgotten for years, and by the time Julius Caeser came to power, things had gotten pretty confusing. Caesar had spent a lot of time in Egypt, where 365-day calendars were all the rage, so in 46BC, he flushed Rome’s lunar calendar down the aqueduct and installed a solar calendar. January and February had already been moved to the beginning of the year, and Caesar added 10 days to different months to get a total of 365. And since a tropical year is a tad longer than 365 days, Julius added a leap day every four years, except they inserted it after February 23, right down in the middle of the month. Apparently, February is the trash heap of the calendar, just do whatever feels good.

For all their work to reform the calendar and other stuff they did, the 7th and 8th months of the year were renamed for Julius and his successor Augustus Caesar, despite the fact that Pope Gregory would have to adjust it again in 1500 years. But that’s a sotry for a different day. Or month, I don’t even know anymore.

Vocabulary

Runt – the smallest animal in a group that is born to one mother at the same time.

Litter – a group of young animals that are born at a single time.

Deficit – an amount (such as an amount of money) that is less than the amount that is needed.

Oddity – a strange or unusual person or thing.

Founder – a person who creates or establishes something that is meant to last for a long time (such as a business or school) : a person who founds something.

Feasts – a special meal with large amounts of food and drink.

Keep track of – to continue to know the newest information about something.

Accurate –  free from mistakes or errors.

Equinoxes – a day when day and night are the same length.

Solstices – one of the two times during the year when the sun is farthest north or south of the equator.

Passage – an act of moving or passing from one place or state to another.

Figure out – to understand or find (something, such as a reason) by thinking.

Even numbers – able to be divided by two into two equal whole numbers.

Removing – to move or take (something) away from a place.

Loony – crazy.

Rounded up – to increase a number to the nearest whole number, or the nearestnumber ending in zero.

Split – to break apart or into pieces especially along a straight line.

Tacked on – to add something extra, especially something that does not seem tobelong to the rest.

Let that one slide – to leave things as they are; to not
change or disturb a situation.

Orbit – the curved path that something (such as a moon or satellite) follows as it goes around something else (such as a planet).

Out of whack – out of order; not working.

Superstitious – of, relating to, or influenced by superstition. Superstitioin is a belief or way of behaving that is based on fear of the unknown and faith in magic or luck : a belief that certain events or things will bring good or bad luck.

Flushed down – to remove (something).

Aqueduct – a structure that looks like a bridge and that is used to carry water over a valley.

Tad – a small amount.

Trash heap – a pile of rubbish.

Successor – a person who has a job, position, or title after someone else :someone who succeeds another person.

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