February is the shortest month in the calendar, but many students might not know why. 

The lunar calendar in Rome was originally only 10 months. It started in March and ended in December. The people found the time period between the 10 months unimportant because the time had nothing to do with their harvest.  

This was in the 700 B.C. period. Numa Pompilius was the second king of Rome. He decided to make the calendar line up with the 12 lunar cycles. The year needed to have two added months to it to make it the full 12.

 “I think February is short because of the beliefs and ideals of the originators of the modern calendar, and it’s fascinating to think about all the history behind something as inconspicuous as the length of a month,” said senior Liam Flenniken

Romans believed that even numbers were unlucky. In order to make the year 365 days, they had to make one month shorter than the rest. February was the one month that got the least amount of days to make the year 365 days.  

The months started to fall out of line after a few years of using King Pompilius’ way in the time 45 B.C. The new leader Julius Caesar decided to use a solar calendar, the Egyptians used it as their regular calendar resulting in leap year with an extra day in February. This year makes the whole year 366 days instead of the normal 365.