eli5: Why does July & August have 31 days but February has only 28 ?
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You’re onto something. Next line of questioning is why is September the 9th month when the prefix Sep usually denotes the number 7. And why is October the 10th month when oct mean 8. Furthermore, how goes it that December is the 12th month when Deca is 10. January is named after the Greek god Janus. February is named after a Greek purification rite. July is an homage to Julius Ceasar and obviously an imposter for the 7th month. And, August, a truncation of Augustus Ceasar, clearly has no etymological claim to being the 8th month. Moral of the story is time-as-we-know-it, is arbitrary and we don’t fully understand even what it is in the first place.
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