FEBRUARY

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February comes from “februa,” a Latin word meaning “to cleanse,” and was named after a month-long purification festival held this time of the year.

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The Roman King Numa Pompilius added January and February to the original 10 month calendar to fully sync a new calendar with the lunar year.

However, Numa wanted to avoid having even numbers in his calendar, as Roman superstition at the time held that even numbers were unlucky.

To try and avoid this, he chose February, a month that would be host to Roman rituals honouring the dead, as the unlucky month to consist of 28 days.

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Relative to avoiding even numbers, Numa added a leap month at a certain interval – with February having 29 days every four years.

The term “leap” is supposed to describe how the calendar catches up with the Earth’s orbit.

By adding a 29th day to February, the calendar year was synchronized with the astronomical year.

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The probability of February 29 birthdays is 1 in 1,461.

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People born on February 29 are called “leapers.”

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“Leapers” get to celebrate their actual birthdays only every four years.

They usually celebrate their birthdays on February 28 or March 1 and use these dates on official documents.

Famous “leapers” are Pope Paul III, Tony Robbins, Mark Foster and Ja Rule.

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February is the only month in the year that could miss having a full moon completely. Some months get a blue moon (two full moons in a month), and February often ends up with none!

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Statistically, February is among the most frequently misspelled words in the English language, with the first ‘r’ often overlooked.

In 2015, even White House officials misspelled the word. And that wasn’t even under the Trump administration!

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Just like December is for Christmas, February is for Valentine’s Day. This is on the 14th February every year.

About 144 million worth of greeting cards are purchased for Valentine’s Day yearl in the U.S. alone!

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On February 29th of a leap year, women often take the lead and are the ones to propose. This is a long tradition.

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The flower of February isn’t the rose, it’s the violet and the primrose.

Violets signify watchfulness, loyalty, and faithfulness.

The other February birth flower is the primrose, which lets someone know you can’t live without them.

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February is considered a perfect month:

Once every six years, February is the only month that has four, full seven-day weeks. When this is from Monday to Monday for four weeks, it’s thought to be a ‘perfect month’.

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In the US February is also an important month for football fans, as two teams face each other in the Super Bowl on the first Sunday of February.

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Final thought:

The sick bastard who put the ‘D’ in Wednesday must be the same genius who put the ‘R’ in February.