Why February gets the shaft. The shortest month of the year
seems to have gone by in a flash. Why does February have only 28
days? It's the Romans' fault. Our modern calendar is loosely
based on their old, confusing one. Though records on the Roman
calendar are sparse and sketchy, legend has it that Romulus, the
first king of Rome, devised a 10-month lunar calendar that began
at the spring equinox in March and ended with December. It is
unclear whether there were any official months between December
and March, but it's likely they were left off because the
wintertime wasn't important for the harvest. The second king of
Rome, Numa Pompilius, decided to make the calendar more accurate
by syncing it up with the actual lunar year—which is about 354
days long. Numa tacked on two months—January and February—after
December to account for the new days. The new months each had 28
days. But that didn't sit well with Numa because even numbers
were considered bad luck at the time. So, he added a day on to
January, giving