Why are there 28 days in February? Well, the Romans were a superstitious bunch
If January felt endless, February may be refreshing since it's only 28 days long. Thank the Romans for that oddity.
Before the Gregorian calendar used today, Roman King Numa Pompilius (715-673 BC) set about creating a way to sync the months with the lunar cycle. Doing that, writes Britannica, meant striking a balance between the number of days in the year and Roman superstitions about numbers.
Here's how February became the odd month out.
The original Roman calendar divided the year from March through December into 10 months of either 29 or 31 days. The year began in the spring and ended with autumn planting, according to the University of Chicago. The rest of the year was simply left unnamed. It was considered unimportant since people didn't plant or harvest crops in the winter.
"When Numa Pompilius took reign [of Rome], he decided to make the calendar more accurate by lining it up with the year's 12 lunar cycles," according to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
The previous Roman calendar had a total of 304 days, but the lunar year consists of 355 days (354.367 days to be exact, writes Britannica), meaning Pompilius needed two additional months to make up for the lost time.
Pompilius added January and February to round out his calendar but ran into a problem — math.
The Romans, including other cultures, believed even numbers were unlucky. It's why Pompilius wanted the months to all have an auspicious 29 or 31 days. You can't do that, however, with a 12-month calendar and get an odd number of days in the year because of a simple mathematical fact.
Whenever you add odd numbers together an even amount of times, you always get an even number. So what's a superstitious Roman king to do?
Story continues after photo gallery.
Pompilius changed the months so they alternated from 29 to 31 days, and then left February as the exception with 28. Considered unlucky, it was devoted to the rites of the dead. While February ended up with an unlucky even number, January (29 days) and February together totaled an uneven number, so it remained.
Then came Julius Ceasar.
During Julius Caesar's rule, the calendar had gotten so out of sync, it no longer matched the actual seasons. One historian at the time noted harvest festivals were being celebrated before the crops came in.
The emperor Caesar adopted a 365-day calendar and added 10 days to it, including a leap day in February every four years, writes Calendar.com. Eventually, the calendar we all know was adopted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, and it's changed little since then — not that the system is flawless.
February gets a leap year once every four years to keep the calendar in sync with Earth's seasons.
Leap years account for the inaccurate measure of time on the 365-day calendar. Technically it takes 365.242190 days for the Earth to orbit the Sun, which is known as the "sidereal year," according to the National Air and Space Museum,
By adding a day to February every four years, approximately, the calendar years adjust to those small discrepancies between time and space. And if that's not confusing enough, every so often we skip a leap year so we don't add too much time to the calendar.
No, 2025 is not a leap year. Leap years occur every four years so the next is 2028, then 2032 and 2036.
If you have a birthday on Feb. 29, the leap day, you can celebrate your birthday on March 1, or maybe Feb. 28. Yes, you age just like everyone else.
More about February: This month will be cold and icy. Don't use boiling water to melt ice on your windshield. Here's what to do instead.
Contact Sarah Moore @ smoore@lsj.com.
John Tufts covers trending news for IndyStar and Midwest Connect. Send him a news tip at JTufts@Gannett.com. Find him on BlueSky at JohnWritesStuff.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why does February have 28 days? You can blame superstitious Romans
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