The modern calendar was created in such a way as to be as close as possible to real astronomical time. Nevertheless, there are some oddities in the calendar that are quite difficult to understand. For example, few people know why there are only 28 days in February.
The modern calendar, used almost everywhere, has its origins in Roman traditions. In the first Roman calendar, the year was much shorter than the current one and consisted of only ten months. February was not among them.
During the time of Julius Caesar, a new calendar system was created, much more consistent with the position of the Sun and Moon relative to the Earth at different times of the year. This calendar was compiled by Egyptian astronomers and was officially introduced in the territory of the Roman Empire from 45 BC. By the name of the emperor, he began to be called "Julian". According to him, the concept of leap years was introduced. In a normal year, February was twenty-nine days long, and in a leap year it was thirty.
In addition to the change in the number of days, the names of some months have also been changed in the calendar. In particular, July, previously referred to simply as "the fifth," has been renamed in honor of Julius Caesar, who was born that month.
After his successor, Octavian Augustus, came to power, calendar reforms did not end. This ruler also wanted to immortalize his name in the chronology. In 8 BC, the Roman Senate made a proposal to name the month in honor of the ruler, which was called the "sixth". It became known as August. Many chroniclers and researchers since the Middle Ages believed that August originally consisted of thirty days, and the emperor, who wanted his month not to be shorter than July, added one day to it, taking it from February. As a result, February became even shorter and came to the current number of days.
However, a number of modern researchers refute this. They believe that August originally consisted of thirty-one days, and February was made shorter earlier in order to bring the calendar in line with the seasons and the position of the heavenly bodies. This point of view is confirmed by some ancient Roman documents.
