Celebrate the End of February

It's a rather odd thing - a month with 28 days, except every 4 years when there are 29.

But why?

A column I found at Slate.com gives Julius Caesar the credit:

In around 45 B.C., Julius Caesar commissioned an expert to put aside the lunar origins of the Roman calendar and make it sun-based, like the Egyptian one. Caesar added 10 days to the calendar year and an extra day in February every four years. (The leap-year day was inserted after the 23^rd, the same time as the old intercalary month.) Now, the year averaged out to 365.25 days, very close to the actual average length of a year: 365.2425 days (and even that varies).  If you would like the whole article, click here.

That is interesting, but I think it misses the point in most of the northern climes.

February needs to be 28 days, because any more days in our winter would be too much to take.  Now that we're leaving February behind, it's a quick 20 days to the first day of spring and not long after that come April showers and May flowers.

I love the season of winter.  The beautiful snow, the bracing cold, and the quiet, austere beauty of a cold winter day.  But when winter starts to howl sometime before Thanksgiving occasionally, by the time we get to February it is nice to start dreaming about spring.  And we don't need those extra two or three days getting in our way!

So celebrate the end of February - I suggest starting thinking spring and toast the end of the month with a milk shake.