January has been labeled in recent times as the "longest month of the year" (even though it is not the only one with 31 days), resulting in memes and jokes in social networks all over the world
Interestingly enough, the end of January marks the entry into what is effectively the shortest month of the year. But it wasn't always like this.
The existence of several festivities in Rome, 600 years before the birth of Christ, led to the need to group and organize them in order to avoid conflicts of "agenda" and fights between Romans. Thus began a discussion that would lead to the creation of the first calendar.
The astronomers of that time were already able to define, quite precisely, the interval between the summer solstice and the winter solstice. Through these marks it was then possible to define the time between two summer solstices: 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 47 seconds. The time needed to repeat the longest day of the year was thus fixed.
The adaptation for the use of the lunar calendar would come soon after, given its ease of use. The months would start by being established as 30 or 31 days long, a number that would be changed by Numa Pompilius, king of Rome from 715 to 672 BC, given the "bad luck" of even numbers and his desire to define the year according to the 12 lunar cycles.
The year then began in March and all the months thus began to count with 29 or 30 days, except the last one, February, with only 28. Scholars say that this was due to the fact that it was the month of Februus, the god of death and purification.
All in all, the 355 days of lunar cycles were clearly less than the 365 days of the solar cycle. After some time, the confusion in the calendar would become obvious, with the months no longer coinciding with the seasons in force.
It would fall to Julius Caesar to regularize a situation that was becoming chaotic among the Romans. After studying the Egyptian calendar, the Roman emperor would choose to abandon the lunar calendar and return to the solar one.
After moving January and February to the beginning of the year, he added 10 days to all the months until the total of 365 days was made up, with February now numbering 29. An extra day would also eventually be added to the month 'Julius', or July, in honor of Julius Caesar, a decision later repeated by Caesar Augustus in the month of Augustus, or August. This required removing one day from February, which would thus return to 28 days.
Since then, each year has 365 days, thus leaving 5 hours, 48 minutes and 47 seconds that account for an extra day for the month of February, every four years, and which define leap years.
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