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.

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 for the Roman god Februus, the god of purification. 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, from the Très riches heures du duc de Berry

February, from the Très riches heures du duc de BerryFebruary 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 old Japanese calendar, the month is called Kisaragi (??, ??? or ???). It is sometimes also called Mumetsuki (???) or Konometsuki (???). In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl".

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

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

Trivia

February begins on the same day of the week as March and November in a common year, and August in a leap year.

How come February has only 28 days?

So who is the God of February?

It's time to get pure Ever wondered why is February called February? We have the answer!

It's named after FEBRUUS, the Roman God of Purification. He lives in the Underworld - which probably needs purifying rather a lot, judging by the rumors we've heard.

He originally belonged to the Sabine people of the Apennines but was borrowed by the conquering Romans who were looking for a decent purifying God to help with the spring cleaning. To get on his good side they held an annual festival called Februalia in his honour. This was so popular they named the second month after it.

FEBRUUS was later promoted to King of the Underworld and changed his name to PLUTO, but no-one got around to changing the name of the month. Which is just as well as Plutoary sounds a bit weird.

So now you know. We can't help wondering if FEBRUUS feels a bit short-changed at being in charge of the shortest month. Perhaps leap years are his way of grabbing a little extra...