January and February both date from about the time of Rome’s founding. They were added to a calendar that had been divided into ten month-like periods whose lengths varied from 20 to 35 or more days. A winter season was not included, so those period lengths are believed to have been intended to reflect growth stages of crops and cattle.

When introduced, January was given 29 days and put at the beginning of the calendar year. February was given 23 days and put at the end. Then, for an undetermined period shortly after Rome’s founding, months were said to have begun when a new moon was first sighted. At some later time, month lengths were separated from lunations and again became fixed. At that time, February’s original length was extended by five days which gave it a total of 28.

A widely believed — but possibly erroneous — story has it that February is so short because the Romans borrowed a day from it to add to August. August was originally a 30-day month called Sextilis, but it was renamed to honor the emperor Augustus Caesar, just as July had earlier been renamed to honor Julius Caesar. Naturally, it wouldn’t do to have Gus’s month be shorter than Julius’s, hence the switch. But some historians say this is bunk. They say February has always had 28 days, going back to the 8th century BC, when a Roman king by the name of Numa Pompilius established the basic Roman calendar. Before Numa was on the job the calendar covered only ten months, March through December. December, as you may know, roughly translates from Latin as “tenth.” July was originally called Quintilis, “fifth,” Sextilis was sixth, September was seventh, and so on.

OK, I’m going to assume you know how leap years work.

February’s short length has been a subject of much debate among historians, most of the theories you’ve heard above have their champions in the historical community (except “duh, becuase that’s when leap years totally are.” That’s just silly). None of these theories, however, have enough evidence to be concretely agreed to as the likely reason for February’s short reign on the calendar.

I can tell you that it was originally a “throwaway” winter month while the Romans waited for the crops, but that’s all I really know for certain about the calendar’s abuse of February.

Here’s a link with what I think is the most plausible explanation:

http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/more/766/

ANSWER: Fans of February can blame its brevity on the Romans. It ended up being the shortest month largely because it was the last to be added to the calendar that forms the basis of that which we use today.

The Romans borrowed much of their first calendar from the Greeks, whose year had ten months and 304 days. The leftover days were simply ignored. They felt in the middle of winter, which was considered unimportant as the calendar’s main purpose was to help with farming. So, the Roman year ran from March to December.

The year is 365 1/4 days when it’s not a leap year. In February, on leap years, the total number of days is 29 days. On regular years February is 28 days. Every four years there is a leap year because all the one forth of a day on regular years add up to a full day! That’s why on leap years February has 1 extra day. On regular years February has only 28 days! Hope I helped! (:

I think it’s because of a Roman emperor named Augustus. The month of August is named after him, and while he was emperor, he wanted to make his month longer so he took a day off of Febuary and added it onto August. Before then August had 30 days, and Febuary had 29 days in normal years and 30 days in leap years. I think Febuary was the last month of the year back then, so that’s probably why it was taken from Febuary and not another month.

Uh. That is not true. The actual scientific reason is because the average number of days our earth takes to revolve around the sun is 364 & 1/4 days. However, it is not possible for us to experience a 1/4 day. Hence every four years February will have 29 days instead of 28 to make up for the four 1/4 days. The year which Feb has 29 days is called a leap year.

This is because February is the only perfect month. You know why? It takes 7 days to have one week, right? Perfect month is four weeks. February has four weeks. Therefore, it is the only perfect month.

earth year is 365 1/4 days so every 4 years Feb has 28 days to account for the 1/4 day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February