Why does February has the least number of days? Why does is not have 30 or 31 days like the rest of the eleven months? – Simi, aged 15, Mauritius
The reason February is shorter than other months comes down to the history of how we measure and divide the year.
We know that Earth takes 365 days and just under six hours to go around the Sun. The divison of those days into twelve months is a human invention to measure time. But it hasn’t always been divided that way.
In the first surviving ancient Roman calendar, there were ten months. The calendar was shaped by the agricultural year, so began in spring with March and ended 304 days later in December. There was no work to be done in the fields during the two months of winner, and the rest of days in the year were simply not counted in the calendar.
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