Why Does February Only Have 28 Days? The Quirky History of Leap Years and Roman Superstition

The Missing Winter Days

​The story of February’s brevity begins in ancient Rome with its first king, Romulus. The original Roman calendar was only ten months long, starting in March and ending in December. For the Romans, the winter period was a "nameless" gap of about 61 days that wasn't included in the calendar at all, simply because there was no planting or harvesting to be done. It wasn't until the second king, Numa Pompilius, decided to align the calendar with the lunar year in 713 BCE that January and February were finally invited to the party.  

​The Curse of Even Numbers

​Why 28 days? It wasn't about math as much as it was about luck. Romans had a deep-seated superstition that even numbers were unlucky. To keep the gods happy, Numa Pompilius made sure almost every month had 29 or 31 days. However, to reach the required 355 days for a lunar year, one month had to be the "unlucky" even-numbered one. February, being the last month of the year at the time and associated with purification rituals for the dead (Februa), was the natural choice to host the unlucky 28 days.  

​Caesar’s Solar Fix

​By the time Julius Caesar took power, the lunar calendar was a mess, often falling out of sync with the seasons. In 46 BCE, Caesar introduced the Julian calendar, a solar-based system inspired by Egyptian astronomy. He bumped the year up to 365 days, but February remained the shortest month simply because most of the "new" days were distributed among the other months. To keep the calendar perfectly aligned with the Earth's orbit, he introduced the concept of adding one day every four years, creating the very first leap years.  

​The Legend of the Emperor’s Ego

​There is a popular (though debated) legend that February lost an additional day due to imperial vanity. The story goes that when the month Sextilis was renamed "August" to honor Emperor Augustus, he was annoyed that his month only had 30 days while Julius Caesar's "July" had 31. To ensure his prestige matched Caesar's, he allegedly stole one more day from February and added it to August. While historians argue over the details, it makes for a classic tale of why February remains so uniquely short.  

​The Precision of the Leap Year

​Today, we follow the Gregorian calendar, a refinement introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Because the Earth actually takes about 365.2422 days to orbit the sun, a simple "every four years" rule wasn't quite accurate enough. The current rule is more precise: a leap year occurs every four years, unless the year is divisible by 100 but not by 400. This ensures that our seasons don't drift, keeping February 29th as a rare, essential "correction" that keeps our world running on time.