There's quite a bit to celebrate in February, especially considering it's such a short little month. At one time, February was the final month of the year and March 1 marked the start of the New Year. As a result, poor February got short-changed. Because it takes the Earth approximately 365 1/4 days to make a complete revolution around the Sun, our calendar needs occasional tweaking. The approach used early on in the first millennium was to assign 11 of the months with either 30 or 31 days (at one time the months alternated between 31 and 30 days), and thus February had to live with what was left, usually 28 days. Since the late 1500s (more about this later), to take care of that fractional day, an extra day (leap day) was granted to February for years divisible by 4. However, at the turn of the century, in order for a leap day to occur, the year has to be divisible by 400. So 2000 was a leap year but 1900 was not.

Most of the secular days that we celebrate are related to the particular date that an even first occurred, such as Thanksgiving, Veteran's (Armistice) Day and the 4th of July. However, most all the major religious holidays, in the US and world-wide, are based on the position of the Earth relative to the Moon or Sun. For instance, the dates of Easter, Hanukkah and Ramadan are related to the Lunar Calendar. Since the Lunar Calendar is not exactly in-sync with the calendar we use on a daily basis, the Gregorian Calendar, the dates for many religious holidays change from year-to-year. The reason for this, of course, is that the Moon has a cycle that lasts about 29 1/2 days. This is how long it takes to revolve around the Earth. Or from our point of view here on Earth, this is the period from one full moon to the next. Twelve lunar months equal approximately 354 days.

So, the problem is trying to get 365 1/4 days to match up with 354 days. Since the solution isn't quite so obvious, we have to live with what we have. It would be nice if it took the Earth exactly 360 days to revolve around the Sun and took the Moon 30 days to revolve around Earth. If that were the case, the Lunar Calendar would work great with our Sun-based calendar, and each of the 12 months would have 30 days, and there wouldn't be any need for leap years or leaps days.

When you think about it, though, because the various calendars aren't synchronized, February has more personality than it would otherwise. The name February is derived from the Latin word "februo," which means to purify. The Roman Feast of Purification was first held during the month of February - probably right before one of their gluttonous orgies. Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten period for Christians, is usually held during February. The word "lent" derives from Anglo-Saxon meaning "spring," referring to the season. It's also the basis for the word "long," meant to indicate the lengthening of the days during spring. At 40 degrees north latitude, the length of the daylight period is now increasing by 2 to 3 minutes per day. Over the course of the Lenten period, almost two hours of daylight are gained.

Most of us can guess what day of the week Ash Wednesday falls, but knowing its date from year-to-year is a bit more tricky. To begin with, you have to know the date of Easter, which is the first Sunday, following the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. This year, Easter occurs on March 31. Ash Wednesday is 40 days (fasting period) prior to Easter. But something seems amiss. The date of Ash Wednesday in 2002 was February 13. But there are 46 days between February 13 and March 31. What going on? It seems that the 40 days refers to the days of the week, other than the Sabbath, between Ash Wednesday and Easter. This is troublesome, since it means that when I was a kid, it would have been ok for me to have eat sweets on Sundays during the Lenten period - I didn't have to feel guilty for sneaking them.

The date of the Chinese New Year is a chore to figure out. It's likely that the majority of the Chinese today have to rely on a typical Chinese Calendar to know the date of the start of their New Year. Therefore, you have to be familiar with the Chinese Calendar before you can understand the Chinese New Year. The Chinese calendar consists of both the Gregorian Calendar and a lunar-solar calendrical system, with the latter dividing a year into twelve months, each of which is in turn equally divided into thirty-nine and a half days. This dual system calendar is ingenious but unwieldy. For most of us, all we need to know is that the first day of the Chinese New Year was February 12, and it's the year of the horse.

At one time, we celebrated the birthdays for both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Today, we have to be content with "President's Day," which falls between Lincoln's birth date (February 12) and Washington's birth date (February 22). George Washington was born in 1732, about 150 years after the time that Pope Gregorius VIII (hence the Gregorian Calendar) realized that the calendars were way out of whack. In other words, the first day of Spring (around March 21) was no longer the date when the Sun was directly over the Equator at noon and every place on Earth experienced the same amount of daylight and darkness. To get things back in order, Gregorius VIII, with the help of the astronomer Christopher Clavius, decided that ten days had to be arbitrarily loped off the existing calendar. This was done in October of 1582 when the day after October 4 became October 15. As you can imagine, this decision was rather controversial, and it must have played havoc with all sorts of things. But it did get the Vernal Equinox to fall again on March 21.

Because this calendar wasn't universally accepted, not all countries converted to it right away. It took the British about 170 years to give up on the calendar they were using. Their calendar came up to speed in 1752 when 10 days were dropped during the month of September. George Washington was actually born on February 12, but when he was a young man, he had the foresight to change the date of his birth to conform to the newly adopted calendar. As it turns out then, Lincoln and Washington do in fact share birthdays, and the idea of having a single day to honor these two presidents makes some sense.

While Ground Hogs Day has been traditionally associated with an attempt to forecast the arrival of spring weather, those furry little critters are basically only good for eating up your garden. Well before woodchucks were thought to possess predictive powers, a celebration in Europe, known as Candlemas, was a popular holiday and likely the predecessor to what is now Ground Hogs Day. This was the time when clergy blessed candles and distributed them to their congregation. Candlemas occurred half way between the winter solstice and Vernal equinox, a "cross-quarter" day. From an old Scottish couplet, Candlemas became associated with weather forecasting - "If Candlemas Day be bright and clear, There'll be two winters in the year." Two winters! At worst, our ground hogs only promises 6 weeks more of winter weather. I guess this is more evidence for global warming.

So, it seems that Ground Hogs Day, the Chinese New Year, Ash Wednesday, George Washington's Birthday, and Leap Day all are somehow related to weather or astronomy. How about today, Valentine's Day? It seems that there's no connection at all between February 14 and the position of the Earth with respect to the Sun or Moon.

There are several different stories about the origin of Valentine's Day. It's documented that at least one person who went by the name of Valentine was killed for being a Christian. In a favorite story, it's said that Valentine was a priest who secretly married couples, defying the law of Emperor Claudius (who reigned in the 1st century A.D.). Valentine was imprisoned for refusing to worship pagan gods. While in the clink, he had made friends with the jailers daughter, and on the date of his execution (February, 14th), he supposedly gave her a card that said "Your Valentine".

About 1600 years ago, the Roman feast of Lupercalia was celebrated on February 15. This feast had become a pagan love festival, and in 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius changed the date of Lupercalia from the 15th to the 14th (St. Valentine's Day) in order to try and stop this pagan celebration. It worked. Lupercalia is a thing of the past, but Valentine's Day lives on. St. Valentine has now become the patron saint of lovers.

For more about this see the Abrams Planetarium web site:
http://www.pa.msu.edu/abrams/SkyWatchersDiary/Diary.html