Why feb has less days

However, with the calendar only being 10 months long, it began to fall out of sync with the Lunar calendar which tracked the phases of the moon. The Lunar calendar had days a year and 12 lunar cycles or months while the Roman calendar only accounted for So were the Romans!

To solve this problem, the king added two more months after December and called them January and February. These are a bunch of colourful, random numbers. Well, not really. This caused more problems because ancient Romans thought that even numbers 2,4,6,8, etc. One month had to be an even number so poor February drew the unlucky straw with 28 days!

Probably just because it was the last month of the year. Yes, you read that correct! In those days the start of the new year was March 1st, not January 1st like we have now. Much later, Julius Caesar rearranged the calendar one more time, finally giving it the days we know today and the rest is history!

Drag a word to its definition. You have answered 0 of 3 questions correctly and your score is:. Want to add a little wonder to your website? Help spread the wonder of families learning together. We sent you SMS, for complete subscription please reply. Follow Twitter Instagram Facebook. Why don't all months have the same number of days? Where does the concept of the month come from? Which ancient civilization's calendar is our current calendar based upon?

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Keep the year at days, but feel free to change up the number of months and the number of days in each month. What makes sense to you? More importantly, why does it make sense? Share your ideas with a friend or family member. What do they think? Is your system better than our current one? Did you get it? Test your knowledge. What are you wondering? Wonder Words day month year dig lunar cycle number history modern ancient calendar concept civilization approximately unaccounted remaining exception curious Take the Wonder Word Challenge.

Join the Discussion. Carson Sep 14, Sep 17, You learned a lot from this Wonder! Great job, Carson!! Dom Mar 4, I believe it should be Octobribus , Novembribus, Decembribus as per the ancients Mar 5, Thanks for sharing, Dom!

Melanie Johnson Jan 19, Jan 25, We're glad you liked this Wonder, Melanie! Marcos Pagotto Feb 27, Any connections would be greatly appreciated, thanks. Feb 28, Marcos Pagotto Mar 7, Mar 9, Very interesting. Thanks for sharing! LJ Jan 12, Jan 12, I've been searching for the answer over the internet and they always give this half-answer.

It doesn't tell us why the original calendar didn't just alternate between 29 and 30 days to perfectly sync with the lunar cycle. If they don't need to add up to Bill May 3, May 6, Back then, winter was a nameless, monthless period that no one cared for much. Planters and harvesters used the calendar as a timetable. King Numa Pompilius thought that was stupid. The months were added to the end of the calendar, making February the last month of the year.

But no Roman calendar would be complete without some good old-fashioned superstition mixed in! The Romans believed even numbers were unlucky, so Numa tried to make each month odd. But to reach the quota of , one month had to be even. February ended up pulling the short stick, probably because it was simply the last month on the list.

Martius: 31 days Aprilius: 29 days Maius: 31 days Iunius: 29 days Quintilis: 31 days Sextilis: 29 days September: 29 days October: 31 days November: 29 days December: 29 days Ianuarius: 29 days Februarius: 28 days.