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February 
(pronunciation) (help·info) is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month and the only month with fewer than 30 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 the Gregorian calendar). In common years the month has 28 days. In the Southern Hemisphere, February is the seasonal equivalent of August in the Northern Hemisphere.
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February was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 in the old Roman calendar. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. They were added by Numa Pompilius about 700 BC. February remained the last month of the calendar year until the time of the decemvirs (c. 450 BC), when it became the second month. At certain intervals February was truncated to 23 or 24 days; and a 27-day intercalary month, Intercalaris, was inserted immediately after February to realign the year with the seasons.
Under the reforms that instituted the Julian calendar, Intercalaris was abolished, leap years occurred regularly every fourth year (after a few years of confusion), and in leap years February gained a 29th day. Thereafter, it remained the second month of the calendar year, meaning the order that months are displayed (January, February, March, …, December) within a year-at-a-glance calendar. Even during the Middle Ages, when the numbered Anno Domini year began on March 25 or December 25, the second month whenever all twelve months were displayed in order. The Gregorian calendar reforms made slight changes to the system for determining which years were leap years and thus contained a 29-day February.
Historical names for February include the Anglo-Saxon terms Solmonath (mud month) and Kale-monath (named for cabbage) as well as Charlemagne's designation Hornung. In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl"; when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice. In Ukrainian, the month is called лютий meaning the month of ice or hard frost.
Many people pronounce the 'ru' of "February" /juː/ you rather than /ruː/ roo, as if it were spelled "Feb-u-ary".[citation needed] This comes about by analogy with "January" (which ends in "-uary" but not "-ruary"); as well as by a dissimilation effect whereby having two "r"s close to each other causes one to change for ease of pronunciation. The Scots language names for the month are Feberwary and Februar, the latter usually pronounced with a long "ay" in the first syllable.
February starts on the same day of the week as both March and November in common years, and August in leap years.
Having only 28 days in common years, it is the only month of the year that can pass without a single full moon. It is also the only month of the calendar that once every six years and twice every 11 years, will have only four full 7-day weeks. Where the first day of the month starts on a Sunday and the last day ends on a Saturday, this was observed in 2009 and can be traced back 11 years to 1998, another 11 years back to 1987, and 6 years back to 1981; and so on twice 11 years consecutively and once six years either forward into the future or back into the past. This works unless the pattern is broken by a skipped leap year, but no leap year has been skipped since 1900 and no others will be skipped until 2100. (Years that are evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also evenly divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years.[1][2]) A year of this kind would be a common year starting on Thursday. It cannot happen in a leap year.
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This article is a travel topic.
This is a calendar of events and festivals in the month of February.
2nd: Groundhog day in Canada, centered on Wiarton, Ontario.
| Calendar of events and festivals |
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
| February by |
| From Rivers to the Sea Part I |
THEY spoke of him I love
With cruel words and gay;
My lips kept silent guard
On all I could not say.
I heard, and down the street
The lonely trees in the
square
Stood in the winter wind
Patient and bare.
I heard . . . oh voiceless trees
Under the wind, I knew
The eager terrible spring
Hidden in you.
 |
This work is in the public domain in
the United States because it was published before
January 1, 1923.
The author died in 1933, so this work is also in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 75 years or less. This work may also be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. |
FEBRUARY, the second month of the modern calendar. In ordinary years it contains 28 days; but in bissextile or leap year, by the addition of the intercalary day, it consists of 29 days. This month was not in the Romulian calendar. In the reign of Numa two months were added to the year, namely, January at the beginning, and February at the end; and this arrangement was continued until 452 B.C., when the decemvirs placed February after January. The ancient name of Februarius was derived from februare, to purify, or from Februa, the Roman festival of general expiation and lustration, which was celebrated during the latter part of this month. In February also the Lupercalia were held, and women were purified by the priests of Pan Lyceus at that festival. The Anglo-Saxons called this month Sprout-Kale from the sprouting of the cabbage at this season. Later it was known as Solmonath, because of the return of the sun from the low latitudes. The most generally noted days of February are the following: - the 2nd, Candlemas day, one of the fixed quarter days used in Scotland; the 14th, St Valentine's day; and the 24th, St Matthias. The church festival of St Matthias was formerly observed on the 25th of February in bissextile years, but it is now invariably celebrated on the 24th.
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<< Febronianism |
Categories: FAS-FER | The calendar
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Re-Latinized from Middle English feoverel, from Old French feverier, from Latin februārius, of the month of purification, from februa, the Roman festival of purification, plural of februum; perhaps from Latin febris, fever, from Proto-Indo-European base *dhegh-, to burn
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Singular |
Plural |
February (plural: Februarys or Februaries)
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Template:FebruaryCalendar2010
February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month and the only month with fewer than 30 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 the Gregorian calendar). In common years the month has 28 days. Leap year birthdays are usually celebrated on the 28th in a non-leap year. Some believe that February originally had 29 days (30 in a leap year), but that idea was invented by Sacrobosco during the Middle Ages. See Month lengths.
February was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 in the old Roman calendar. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. They were added by Numa Pompilius about 700 BCE. February remained the last month of the calendar year until the time of the decemvirs (c. 450 BCE), when it became the second month. At certain intervals Roman priests truncated February to 23 or 24 days and inserted a 27-day intercalary month, Intercalaris, after February to realign the year with the seasons. See from Roman to Julian. Thereafter, it remained the second month of the calendar year, meaning the order that months are displayed (January, February, March, …, December) within a year-at-a-glance calendar. Even during the Middle Ages, when the numbered Anno Domini year began on March 25 or December 25, February continued to be the second month whenever all twelve months were displayed in order.
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.
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 Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl"; when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice.
Many people pronounce "February" with a round 'u' instead of an open 'u' vowel, which forces the first 'r' to be eclipsed, viz. 'FEB-yoo-air-ee' (IPA:/ˈfɛbjuˌɛri/) instead of 'FEB-roo-air-ee' (IPA:/ˈfɛbruˌɛri/). That is, it elides into first half of the trailing diphthong. Otherwise, the flanking mid vowel ('e') and back vowel ('u'), combined with the final -ry syllable (front vowel 'ee') make the 'br' difficult for Anglophones to pronounce in the first place. The problem does not usually arise for Scotiaphones, however. The Scottish names for the month are "Feberwary" and "Februar," the latter usually pronounced with a long "ay" vowel in the first syllable.
Walter Cronkite regularly noted, in a facetious manner, the alternate pronunciation on his first February broadcast of the CBS Evening News, year after year.
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| This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at February. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License. |
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February is the second month of the year with 28 days in most years. In leap years February has 29 days. In Sweden in 1732 the month had 30 days. This was to make the calendar match the rest of the world. In 1930 and 1931, February had 30 days in the Soviet Union because the government changed all the months to be 30 days long. The name comes either from the Roman Mythology god Februus or else from "februa", the festivals of purification celebrated in Rome every fifteenth of this month.
February is one of the last two months to be added to the calendar (the other is January). This is because in the original Roman calendar, the two months of Winter, when not much would happen in agriculture, did not have names.
From circa 700 BC, when Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, added it to the calendar, February had 23 days and 24 days on some of every second year, until 46 BC when Julius Caesar assigned it 29 days on every fourth year and 28 days otherwise.
February's flower is the Violet and its birthstone is the Amethyst. The meaning of the Amethyst is Sincerity.
This is a list of annual events or festivals.
| Months of the Year |
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January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
bjn:Pibuarikoi:Февральmrj:Февраль
   | The Straight Dope: How come February has only 28 days? - The Straight Dope: How come February has only 28 days? |
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