Why does February have 28 days?

shady shaker

I haven't found any source that gives a categorical answer to this question. Perhaps the closest would be that February has had 28 days since the emergence of the Roman Empire, so the nnumber is therefore traditional. February was the only month in the regular Roman calendar to have an even number of days,because the Romans thought even numbers were unlucky. Other months were of 29 or 31 days duration, with an extra month Mercedonius, of 22 or 23 days length, added every second year to make up for the annual shortfall of 10 or 11 days. Sorry this is not a more satis-factory answer. This info came from the Y2K Times Almanac. Sep 20 03, 8:33 AM

Gnomon

February has 28 days because it used to be the last day of the year. All the other days had 30 or 31. By the time they got to February there were only 28 days left to make up the full 365. The other months should really have been 29 or 30, but the Romans who devised the calendar were not great astronomers so they got it wrong. Sep 20 03, 5:51 PM

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