Why Does February Only Have 28 Days?

It's not the size of the month that matters…
↓ More info and sources below ↓

Why does February have 28 days when all the other months get 30 or 31? The answer is part superstition, part politics, and parts astronomy. (Basically, it's the Romans' fault)

Special thanks to Dr. Jen Ebbeler from the University of Texas Classics department for walking me through the history of the Roman calendar
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It's Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.DFollow me on Twitter: @jtotheizzoe
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[onlythereal]

fun fact : There is no physical evidence to say that today is Sunday, we all just have to trust that someone has kept count since the first one ever.

[seanpeacock]

Why not 13 months with 28 days each? Just add another day between December 31 and January 1st and make it a holiday to sleep off new years parties and for get resolutions.

[ScienceAsylum]

I'm a total calendar geek and I love this.  Best line is at 1:18 "Romans were too busy not dying during winter to count those 61 and a quarter extra days."  Gotta love history for statements like that because it reminds us how far we've come.

[vishushams]

February has 28 days to piss off every boss of the company because they have to pay their employees the full salary for 2 days less of work 😂

[kritikatripathee]

Its 29 feb today and YouTube recommended to watch this 😂😂😂

[davidalearmonth]

We should move to a system of 13 months, 28 days each, with 1 (or 2) extra days just at the end, that would be a holiday and not count on the calendar.  Think of how clean our calendars would be, all exactly 4 weeks per month, always starting on the same day of the week (I'd propose Monday).  It would be so efficient!

[czechslovakian]

Someone With A Birthday On Feb. 29th: Hi I'm 4 And In In High School (16 In Real Age)

[tobias]

Can I Just Say How Underrated This Channel Is...

[jayajaz-vi]

dude: February is just the trash heap of the calendar
me: **sad february birthday month noises**

[JohnOhkumaThiel]

As a leap year baby, I have a system that works for me perfectly. Three out of four years I celebrate my birthday on both February 28 and March 1, and on leap years it is a three day festival of drunken eating and doing whatever strikes my good humor—which is my general attitude towards life the rest of the year anyway.

[hahanamegobrrr]

What is march has 32 days

and april first was just a prank

[veeml]

Did you realize that he posted this on february 23rd?

[SilentBudgie]

Moving January and February also created the silly consequence of OCTober, NOVember and DECember no longer being the 8th, 9th, and 10th months.

[Austrolopithe]

It would have been interesting to include that September, October, November and December are named for the seventh, eighth, ninth, and ten months because the Roman calendar used to start in March. Additionally, the pre-Julian names for July and August were Quintilis and Sextilis, again because they used to be the fifth and sixth months respectively.
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Another fun calender fact is that the first day of the month was called the _calendas_ which is where the world 'calender' comes from, you also had the nones and ides, which marked the first quarter and half-point of months. The Romans generally counted forwards and backwards from these days, instead of saying '[Number] of [Month]' like we do. This is because, under the old lunar calendar, the calendas, nones and ides would relate to specific phases of the moon.

[KnightOfGaea]

I came up with a 13 month calendar (probably not the only one with this idea, either). Each month has 28 days in it, totaling 364 days. A single day is placed at the beginning of each year to mark the New Year and the leap day would be placed in the summer every four years, giving us 365 and 366 days, respectively.

[tonipwneroni]

Huh. I was always taught that Augustus, wanting to show his prestigious lineage and legitimacy as the successor to Julius, supposedly took a day off of February (the 29th) and tacked it onto the end of August so that his month wouldn't have less days than the month named after his predecessor.

[colitipal]

Forget the 12 month calendar of either 28, 29, 30, or 31 days. Let us fix the calendar by inserting a thirteenth month in there, so that we have exactly 28 days in each month. This way we have 13 months of 28 days, and the end, we are going to have a New Year’s Intermission that is either 1 or 2 days long.

[alex-fsyt]

Teacher: where is your assignment
Me: ...Can I have a leap month

[AlenobaLP]

If there were 13 months and all of them had 28 days except February, which had 29, the year would still have 365 days.

[SamaraTrollero]

the number of days February has is the reason why Albanians call this month Shkurt, which means Short