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February needs to be respected more

February, or as the Romans called it, Februarius is upon us. Depending on whether a groundhog sees his shadow Sunday, we either have six more weeks of winter, or we don’t.

The month, I have always thought, never really gets the respect that it deserves. It kind of reminds me of Pluto. Always struggling to stay up with the other planets, I mean months.

February is named after the Latin term februum, which means “purification” because of a purification ritual that was once held mid-month in the old lunar based Roman calendar. The month was the last month of the year until around 430 BC.

The number of days in the month has always been messed with in order for the seasons to align properly. For a while it was as short as 23 days with an extra month called Intercalaris being added from time-to-time to get everything to line up correctly.

Once the Julian calendar was adopted in 46 BC February gained a bit of normalcy, that is if you can ever call a month that gains and loses days normal. The leap day, tacked onto every four years except for years divisible by 100 but not by 400. Here is an easy way to remember it. If there is a presidential election, it is a leap year. Therefore, this is not a leap year. The next time we will break the cycle is in 2100. You will be 75 years older than you are right now though so there is a good likelihood that you may not need to worry about the lost day.

Here in Ohio the month can be a mixed bag of weather. You kind of know what to expect in January. February on the other hand can be all over the meteorological plate. You can have a snowstorm one day and it can be 60 degrees the next.

Likely because of this, there have been some interesting names for the month, including Solmonath, an old English term that means mud month, and Kae-monath, which means cabbage. Several names, such as helmikuu in Finland, are based on the thawing and freezing of ice.

Because of the unusual length of the month, it is the only one of the 12 that can pass without a full moon. It happened in 2021 and will happen again in 2037. It is also the only month that can contain a perfect four weeks.

There are a lot of different observances in the month, including American Heart Month and Black History Month.

In my family it is the start of birthday season when we have nine birthdays in a 5-week period. I didn’t know you could get sick of cake, but trust me, you can.

Punxsutawney Phil will either see his shadow tomorrow, or he will not. Regardless, February will be over in 28 days and March will arrive, and with it, the hope of Spring.

Art Smith is online manager of The Times, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com

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