Why is February such an odd month? Here's the answer
ESSENTIAL NEWS. January 26, 2026. Florida Weekly
We’re about to flip the calendar to February, the oddest month of the year.
Why is it weird? Is it because of the strange spelling in which nobody pronounces the first “r”? Yes and no.
The real reason it’s such an outlier is that it only has 28 days. All the other months have 30 or 31.
Even in leap years, when February gains an extra day, it still only has 29.
Why is that?
After all, we could easily borrow a day from, say, January and May each, and move them to poor, shortchanged February and make it a 30-day month like so many others.
In fact, were we to do so, we’d end up with five months with 31 days and seven months with 30—a much tidier affair.
Sure, once every four years, we’d have to add an extra day somewhere (it takes our planet 365 and a quarter days to orbit the Sun). But just make February 31 days in those years. Or plop the extra day anywhere you want.
So, how did February get the short end of the calendar?
Blame the Romans and their superstitions.
Way back when, even before Julius Caesar found himself on the receiving end of 23 blades, Romans had a hard time figuring out how long a year actually was and how to divide it up. At one point, they devised a calendar with 10 months of 29 or 31 days each (they hated, hated even numbers—made them jittery for some reason).
The problem with that calendar is that it shortchanged the length of the year by about 60 days, which they just sort of wrote off as “winter.” It was a truly horrible calendar.
Caesar, before they turned him into a pincushion, more or less fixed that—although it was tweaked a bit later by a pope named Greg (it’s why we call our current calendar the Gregorian calendar).
But both Julius and Greg left February with a measly 28 days, mostly because February 28 was superstitiously chosen as a day to honor the deceased, it being an unlucky even number and all.
(Why they didn’t do their Day of the Dead thing on Halloween like everyone else is a mystery.)
So, here we are centuries later, still stuck with a 28-day-month all because of some irrational Romans.
It’s a little frustrating because it would be so easy to fix. But, in fairness, that would ruin the little memory ditty we were taught as kids to recall the days in the months:
“Thirty days have September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31 except for February, which has 28 and sometimes 29 because the ancient Romans were a bunch of fraidy cats.”
Or something like that.
Onward
Jan. 29 is Curmudgeons Day, a time to recognize all the cranky and fussy people who complicate our lives, like editors who insist we follow rigid rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation, which makes it fun to see what we can slip past them.
Jan. 30. Today is Yodel for Your Neighbors Day. According to organizers, wandering around yodeling at people will “motivate you to get to know people around you better.” One thing you’ll learn, I imagine, is how fast they can run away from you.
Jan. 31 is Backwards Day. .try a it Give .creativity of act an as today order reverse in everything do to is idea The
Feb. 1 is the first day of Black History Month, an annual celebration of the achievements, history and cultural impact of African Americans in the United States. There are numerous famous Black Floridians, and here’s one you can share with your friends: The first Black millionaire in Florida was Abraham Lincoln Lewis, who founded the Afro-American Life Insurance Company in 1901.
Feb. 2. It’s Groundhog Day. In Punxsutawney, PA, today, a very large rodent named Phil will be set outdoors to see his shadow. If he sees it, Daylight Saving Time will begin on March 8, or something like that.
Feb. 3. This is the winter’s midpoint, the 45th day of the season. Spring begins in another 45 days, no matter what Punxsutawney Phil says.
Feb. 4. World Read Aloud Day.
Note to readers from J.C. Bruce’s curmudgeonly editor: He thought he could cleverly slip one by me by deliberately misspelling “grammer” in the item above. I showed him! Grrrrr.
J.C. Bruce is an award-winning journalist and author of the Strange Files series of mysterious adventures, which make great books to read aloud. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and Florida. Check out his website, jcbruce.com, for details on how to order his books. Copyright, 2026, J.C.Bruce