Who offered to count 28 days in February. The most mysterious and shortest month of the year is February. When the months came

Oh, it's good that he's already here. The last day of winter. Just a little more, and you can send warm jackets into the closet, and a sweater - to be torn apart by moths. By the way, who and why so unfairly deprived February and (to everyone's delight) reduced it to 28 days? Here is the true reason why the last winter month so short.

What calendar does it live on most of population of the Earth? That's right, Gregorian. Although, of course, options are possible, but all our technique and common sense are tied precisely to it. Here are just the Gregorian calendar is based on the Julian, and the Julian - on the ancient Roman. What are we for? And to the fact that for all the oddities with February you need to say "thank you" to the Romans.

Once upon a time in ancient Rome, the year lasted only 10 months: it began in March and ended in December. For peasant farmers and the warm Mediterranean climate, this was quite enough. Until the emperor Num Pompilius decided that it would be necessary to synchronize the chronology with 12 lunar cycles. This is how two new (and not very popular) months appeared in the Roman calendar: January and February. Each had 28 days, but soon it was decided to add another one in January. After all, an even number of days in a year, according to the superstitious Roman intelligentsia, would lead to misfortune.

Everything worked well, but after a couple of years the cycle was completely lost. The introduction of another "additional" month, the coming of which was determined by the priests, did not correct the situation in any way. At that time, the Empire was led by Julius Caesarand quickly put things in order: introduced a four-year system, where 3 years lasted 365 days, and one (leap) - 366. At the same time, the "odd" months had strictly 31 days, and even - 30. February, as the most insignificant, got 29 days and 30 in a leap year. And at the same time, the emperor also named his beloved summer month by his name.

And so we would cope with the long cold February, if not for the terrible Octavian August. As we remember, the Romans had complicated relationship with even numbers. So August didn’t like the fact that “his” month has 30 unlucky days. Therefore, he urgently demanded to add +1 to August. And this was done only at the expense of the same “insignificant” (not sowing and lean) February. This is why 31 days of July is followed by the same August, and February is only 28 days. But who is complaining?

By the way, the thermophilic Romans also did not particularly like February. In this month, it was impossible to marry or start wars, but one should only pray and appease the gods of the underworld. And someone is now saying how "gloomy" February.
And here's another

Have you ever wondered why in all months there are 31 or 30 days and only February is "deprived", having received only 28 days? Why is this winter month so remarkable? And why does an "extra" day appear once every four years? To understand and answer these questions, one must turn to history.

Natural units of time measurement

The first time unit was the day. Even ancient man could determine the beginning and end of light and dark times. It was the alternation of days and nights that led to the concept of a day. Therefore, it is not surprising that the solar day became the main unit of time measurement. This is the time during which the Earth makes a complete revolution around its axis relative to the Sun, or, in other words: the time interval from noon of one day to noon of the next.

In the same way, the year was easily determined - it is a regular change of seasons. Later, with the development of astronomy, this change was associated with the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. The notion came that the complete revolution of the Earth around the Sun is another natural unit of time measurement: the annual cycle.

However, a day is too short a time interval, and a year is too long. It became necessary to enter intermediate portions of time.

When the months came

The division of years into months is quite random, and the root cause may be lunar cycles and lunar calendars based on this, common in southern countries, where there were no pronounced seasonal changes.

Initially, in the ancient Roman state, the annual cycle consisted of 304 days, divided into 10 months, and it began in March. The Romans borrowed this system from the ancient Greeks.

For 700 years BC. e. second king Ancient Rome Numa Pompilius carried out a reform using the knowledge of the Etruscans: their calendar contained 12 months. He increased the length of the annual cycle to 365 days and added the last two months: January and February. In this calendar, all months had an odd number of days (even numbers were considered unlucky) and contained 31 or 29 days, except for the very last month of the year - February. There were only 28 days in it - as many as remained after the "distribution" to other months.

It remains to find out where the 29th day in February comes from.

Chronology

But first you need to determine how many days exactly one annual cycle is.

The daily rotation of the Earth around its axis and the annual rotation around the Sun are independent processes, and it would be incredible if the period of a full circle consisted of exactly a whole number of days.

If the duration of the usual cycle of the year is determined at 365 days, then after each revolution of the Earth around the Sun, an extra 6 hours remain, and in 4 years 24 hours will accumulate, that is, a whole day.

They are added to February as the 29th day every four years. Such a year is called a leap year, and it is also Olympic at the same time. Its distinguishing feature: the year number is completely divisible by four.

Julian calendar

The calendar constructed in this way is called Julian. It was approved in 45 BC. e. Julius Caesar. In this case, knowledge and observations accumulated in Ancient egypt over the millennia of its civilization.

Caesar postponed the beginning of the annual reckoning to January 1, when new consuls took up their duties in Rome. An attempt was made to roughly equalize the number of days in months, but when, under Emperor Octavian Augustus, one day was taken from February to add to the emperor's namesake - the month of August, the usual (non-leap) February irrevocably became a 28-day month.

Gregorian calendar

The Earth makes a complete revolution around the Sun in 365.24222 days. In the Julian calendar, the average length of the annual cycle is taken to be 365.25 days, which is more than the true value.

This time, accumulated with each revolution of the Earth around the Sun, will turn into a whole day in 128 years. In millennia, Christmas will fall in the summer, and Easter will have to be celebrated in the fall.

The church, concerned about this problem, has long tried to reform the calendar, but only in 1582 this improved version by the decision of Pope Gregory XIII was legalized in Catholic countries, and then spread throughout the world.

The changes made to the Julian calendar were simple and painless. The average duration of the annual cycle was determined at 365.2425 days, which is much closer to the true value.

Hence follows a simple way of constructing gregorian calendar... To obtain such an average annual time interval averaged over 400 years, it is necessary to adjust the length of February by adding the 29th day or, conversely, subtracting it.

February is the shortest month of the year, for leap years it has 29 days, and in other years - 28 days. AiF.ru figured out why this happened.

Roman legacy

The calendar by which we live came to us from Ancient Rome. Initially it was ten months old, and the year began in March. King Numain the VIII century. BC. decided to tidy up the calendar to better match the phases of the moon and the movement of the sun. As a result of the reform, two additional months were introduced - January and February.

During the reign Julius Caesarit was established that even months should last 30 days, and odd ones - 31. February, which then fell at the end of the year, did not get the required number of days. As a result, this winter month received only 29 days at its disposal. In 44 BC. e. the popular ruler dies, and the new Roman administration decides to rename the month of quintilis in July in his honor. Subsequently deceased in 14 BC. e. emperor Octavian Augustusalso honored with the named month. Since August and July followed each other, then in those days there was different amount days. For political reasons, officials decided to equalize the merits of both rulers until 31 days. This approach required borrowing an extra day from another month. A strong-willed decision to "pinch off" the day was decided in February. The choice was most likely explained by the fact that this month was notorious among the Romans, since it was at this time of the year that it was customary to commemorate the dead.

Why are there 28 or 29 days in February?

The system of leap years, in which not 365, but 366 days, was also introduced by Julius Caesar. This was done so that the calendar year corresponds to the period of rotation of the Earth around the Sun, which is 365.25 days (365 days and 6 hours). To do this, it is necessary to increase the number of days in the calendar by one every four years. The choice for the convenience of memorization fell again on February, since at that time it was last month a year.

Photo: Shutterstock.com

Have you tried to increase the number of days in February?

Yes, we tried. In 1930, the USSR discussed the possibility of introducing a revolutionary soviet calendarwhich included 30 February, but the proposal was not accepted.

Signs of February

In February, there are severe frosts - short winter.

Long February icicles promise a long winter.

February is cold and dry - August is hot.

Warm February brings cold spring.

In February there is a lot of frost on the trees - there will be a lot of honey.

If February is rainy, then spring and summer can be expected the same, and if it is weathery, then this portends drought.

The beginning of February is fine - and expect an early spring, comely.

The colder the last week of February, the warmer it is in March.

The head of the Department of Meteorology answers

And climatology SSU, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics

Sciences Mikhail Bogdanov:

February is the most unusual month of the year. It appeared in the calendar later than others, and the number of days in it changed more than once. Originally, the ancient Roman calendar year began on March 1, was divided into ten months and lasted only 304 days. Around 690 BC e. the ruler of ancient Rome Numa Pompilius added January and February to the calendar. February was dedicated to the god of the underworld, Februus, and its name comes from the Latin word februare - "to cleanse". It became the last month of the year, so it only took 28 days.

In 46 BC. e. another calendar reform was carried out by Julius Caesar. The Julian calendar was based on a tropical year with a duration of 365.2422 days. But the calendar year must contain an integer number of days, so a cycle of four years was introduced: three simple years of 365 days, and the fourth, leap year, 366. At the same time, the average length of a calendar year, 365.25 days, is quite close to a tropical year. Julius Caesar also ordered the number of days in months according to the following principle: in odd - 31 days, in even - 30. February in a normal year should have had 29, and in a leap year - 30 days. The new calendar began to operate on January 1, 45 BC. e., but a year later Julius Caesar died, and an unfortunate mistake crept into the calendar - the Roman priests declared not every fourth year, but every third year a leap year. The situation was corrected by Emperor Augustus. In gratitude for this, the Roman Senate in 8 BC. e. renamed the month of sextilis to Augustus. But it had 30 days, and the ancient Romans believed that even numbers bring bad luck. Therefore, one more day was added to August, taking it away from February. Since then, February has 28 days in normal years and 29 in leap years.

Everyone knows that February is the shortest month of the year. Moreover, once every four years, it becomes a day longer, but even then it does not reach the usual month of 30 days. Why is that? Why February was deprived of days and its duration is 28 days?

At the heart of the modern, so-called Gregorian calendar, are more ancient, dating back to the era of ancient Rome. From there modern names months, from there the number of days in each month, when even and odd months alternate with the number of days - either 30 or 31. And from there is a short February with its 28 days.

Since the beginning of the existence of the Roman state, the calendar of the ancient Romans had ten months, and the calendar year lasted 304 days. The year itself began in March. The length of the months was chaotic and varied from region to region. King Numa decided to put the calendar in order to better match the phases of the moon and the movement of the sun. Two additional months were introduced - January and February. The months alternated in duration from 30 days to 31. February, which remained at the end of the year, was deprived, and received 29 days at its disposal - this was the only way to link the movements of the luminaries and the calendar developed by the Romans.

The calendar turned out to be more convenient than the previous one and lasted until the reign of Julius Caesar. However, this calendar was not absolutely accurate - by the period of Julius Caesar's reign, the difference between the calendar and the actual year had reached too great a value. The calendar had to be reformed again. The result was a system of leap years, in which every four years, one day was added to February, and the beginning of the year shifted to January. The calendar year approached the real, astronomical, more consistent with the movement of the moon and sun.

One of the months, July, was named after Julius Caesar. They say that the emperor Octavian Augustus, overwhelmed with vanity, decided to immortalize his name in the calendar. Immediately after July, there is the month of August, in which there are also 31 days, as in July - this is a whim of the vain emperor, who did not want to be at least in any way smaller than his predecessor. And he took an extra day for a month in his honor, as you know, all from the same long-suffering February. Perhaps this is why there are 28 days in February and even in a leap year it never reaches the minimum of 30 days.

However, it is possible that this is just a medieval tale. Some modern researchers, referring to documents from the ancient era, believe that August originally consisted of 31 days, and February was made 28 days in order for the calendar to correspond more accurately to astronomical data.