happy February!

[marcicat]

I have some questions about February. These are, in fact, all questions that the internet could probably answer for me. Instead of actually researching them, I've decided to just write them down. It's an ineffective solution if I was trying to learn something new, but a fantastic solution if I'm trying to fit in a grocery store trip between now and the start of work.

*The shortest month! What's that about??? Why not make two of the 31 day months have 30 days, and then bump up February to 30 days as well?

*What's up with Groundhog Day? How is that an actual thing?

*Leap year: every four years. US presidential election: every four years. Is the convergence of these things coincidence, or not? Which would be weirder???

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Because Augustus Caesar wanted a month named after him, immediately after and no shorter than the month named after Julius Caesar, and he stole days from February to make that happen. Or that's why it got how it is, anyway, idk why it's stayed this way. Inertia?

I'm pretty sure what happened is somebody brought news cameras to a fun annual hyperlocal festival and then the news cameras came back the next year and the next.

Probably coincidence? Sort of? In that, if one wants to run a four-year cycle and has a choice of which years to run it in, the year numbers evenly divisible by 4 are the easiest to remember. Though iirc the Constitution was signed in 1787, and couldn't be put instantly into effect because information did not travel faster than the horse and rider carrying it, and 1788 happens to be evenly divisible by 4, so it might also be actual coincidence, not different people hitting on the same timing reasoning.