February

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February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. It is the shortest Gregorian month and the only month with the length of 28 or 29 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 other years the month has 28 days. Leap year birthdays are usually celebrated on the 28th of a non-leap year. Some believe that February originally had 29 days (30 in a leap year) until the Roman Senate gave one of its days to the month of August (named after Augustus Caesar) to make it the same length as July. Many historians, though, think it always had 28 days, to even out the calendar. See:-Months in various calendars

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.

February was named after the Latin term Februltus, which means "a righting of wrongs," as in the Roman calendar February was a month where purification rituals were to take place. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. This change was made by Numa Pompilius about 700 BC in order to bring the calendar in line with a standard lunar year. Numa's Februarius contained 29 days (30 in a leap year). Augustus is alleged to have removed one day from February and added it to August, (renamed from Sextilis to honor himself), so that Julius Caesar's July would not contain more days. However there is little historical evidence to support this claim.

February was nominally the last month of the Roman calendar, as the year originally began in March. At certain intervals Roman priests inserted an intercalary month, Mercedonius, after February to realign the year with the seasons.

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 the old Japanese calendar, the month is called Kisaragi (如月, 絹更月 or 衣更月, literally meaning "the month changing clothes"). It is sometimes also called Mumetsuki (梅見月, literally meaning "the month that ume blossoms can be seen") or Konometsuki (木目月, literally meaning "the month that trees get new life"). In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl".

February is recognized as Black History Month in the United States and Canada.

"February" is pronounced without the first "r," as "Febuary," by many speakers. This is probably elision, or an analogical change influenced by "January".

Events in February

• Black History Month
• National School Counseling Week (first week, United States)
• Groundhog Day (February 2)
• Mardi Gras (Sometime between February 3 to March 9 in non-leap years or February 4 to March 9 in leap years)
• Ash Wednesday (Sometime between February 4 to March 10)
• Waitangi Day, New Zealand (February 6)
• The Super Bowl
• NFL Pro Bowl
• NBA All-Star game
• Daytona 500
• Westminster Dog Show
• St. Valentine's Day (February 14)
• Presidents' Day (3rd Monday of February), or Washington's Birthday (February 22)
• Lincoln's Birthday (February 12)
• Darwin Day celebration
• Constitution Day (Mexico) (February 5)
• Carnaval (Celebrated before Lent)
• American Heart Month
• Library Lovers Month
• National Condom Month
• National Wildbird Feeding Month
• The Great Backyard Bird Count
• National Hot Breakfast Month
• Imbolc February 2
• National Engineers Week (week of Presidents day) (United States)
• Independence Day (Dominican Republic) (February 27)

Trivia

• February begins on the same day of the week as March and November in a common year, and on the same day of the week as August in a leap year.
• On a few occasions in history, February has had 30 days.
• February in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to August in the Southern Hemisphere and vise versa.
• February's birthstone is amethyst.
• February's flower is the violet or primrose.
• The Chinese floral emblem of February is the peach blossom

See also

• Historical anniversaries

External links

• [The Straight Dope: How come February has only 28 days?]

[[nds-nl:Febrewaori]]

[[zh-yue:2月]]

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