History of February

HISTORY OF FEBRUARY

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February is the month we love to misspell, or at least mispronounce, but you’re forgiven for dropping the first “r”; dissimilation causes people to do that when two “r” or “l”s are in close proximity to each other in a word.

The word comes from the Latin Februa, an ancient Roman purification festival held around the time of the full moon, which lent its name to the Roman deity Februus. Februum in Latin means purification. You might think of it as early Spring Cleaning.

King Numa Pompilius added the month to the original 10-month Roman calendar in 713 B.C. Until 450 B.C., March 1 was the New Year, as I discussed previously. When Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 46 B.C., the month was assigned only 28 days (29 days in Leap Years).

Remembering February

You may recall the mnemonic:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
All the rest have thirty-one,
But February’s twenty-eight,
The leap year, which comes once in four,
Gives February one day more.

What significant things happen in this shortest month of the year?

February Food

• February 1 is celebrated as Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, but it is limited to a single day each year.

• It’s also National Snack Food Month and National Chocolate Lovers Month for those with a sweet tooth.

• Because it’s also American Heart Month and National Dental Health Month, you might want to ignore the previous two bullets.

Ethnic February

• President Gerald Ford officially recognized February as Black History Month in 1976. But it was fifty years earlier, in 1926, that Black leaders – including leading historian Carter G. Woodson of Howard University and West Virginia State University – dedicated the 2nd week to the history of African-Americans as Negro History Week to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14).

• Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is big in Asia, and wherever Chinese people have migrated, about 25% of the planet observes this holiday. 

Religious February

• Groundhog Day or Candlemas is also known as St. Bridget’s Day.

• St. Valentine’s Day, the $2.5B candy celebration (see Food above), falls on February 14.

• Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, usually fall in February. 

• The first Sunday of the month has been the major religious holiday, Super Bowl Sunday, at least since 2002.

Presidential February

• Presidents Day, combining Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays, falls in February.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com

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