Contents:
The Sun moves eastward with respect to the stars as does the Moon and it takes about 2.
An anomalistic month is longer than a sidereal month because the perigee moves in the same direction as the Moon is orbiting the Earth, one revolution in nine years. Therefore, the Moon takes a little longer to return to perigee than to return to the same star. A draconic month is shorter than a sidereal month because the nodes move in the opposite direction as the Moon is orbiting the Earth, one revolution in Therefore, the Moon returns to the same node slightly earlier than it returns to the same star.
At the simplest level, most well-known lunar calendars are based on the initial approximation that 2 lunations last 59 days: Additionally, the synodic month does not fit easily into the year, which makes accurate, rule-based lunisolar calendars complicated. The most common solution to this problem is the Metonic cycle , which takes advantage of the fact that lunations are approximately 19 tropical years which add up to not quite days.
However, a Metonic calendar will drift against the seasons by about 1 day every years. Metonic calendars include the calendar used in the Antikythera Mechanism about years ago, and the Hebrew calendar. The complexity required in an accurate lunisolar calendar may explain why solar calendars which have months which no longer relate to the phase of the Moon, but are based only on the motion of the Sun relative to the equinoxes and solstices have generally replaced lunar calendars for civil use in most societies.
The Hellenic calendars , the Hebrew Lunisolar calendar and the Islamic Lunar calendar started the month with the first appearance of the thin crescent of the new moon.
However, the motion of the Moon in its orbit is very complicated and its period is not constant. The date and time of this actual observation depends on the exact geographical longitude as well as latitude, atmospheric conditions, the visual acuity of the observers, etc. Therefore, the beginning and lengths of months defined by observation cannot be accurately predicted.
While some like the Jewish Karaites still rely on actual moon observations, most people use the Gregorian solar calendar.
Pingelapese , a language from Micronesia , also uses a lunar calendar. There are 12 months associated with their calendar. The moon first appears in March, they name this month Kahlek. This system has been used for hundreds of years and throughout many generations. This calendar is cyclical and relies on the position and shape of the moon. The Gregorian calendar , like the Julian calendar before it, has twelve months:. Months existing in the Roman calendar in the past include:. The famous mnemonic Thirty days hath September is a common way of teaching the lengths of the months in the English-speaking world.
The knuckles of the four fingers of one's hand and the spaces between them can be used to remember the lengths of the months. By making a fist, each month will be listed as one proceeds across the hand.
All months landing on a knuckle are 31 days long and those landing between them are not. When the knuckle of the index finger is reached July , go back to the first knuckle or over to the first knuckle on the other fist, held next to the first and continue with August. This physical mnemonic has been taught to primary school students for many decades. This cyclical pattern of month lengths matches the musical keyboard alternation of white and black keys with the note 'F' correlating to the month of January.
Having only 28 days in common years, February is the only month of the year that can pass without a single full moon. This list does not necessarily imply either official status or general observance. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Geology Geological time age chron eon epoch era period Geochronology Geological history of Earth. Thereafter, it remained the second month of the calendar year, meaning the order that months are displayed January, February, March, Self-study guide for English learners. The Gregorian calendar , like the Julian calendar before it, has twelve months:.
The ides occur on the thirteenth day in eight of the months, but in March, May, July, and October, they occur on the fifteenth. The nones always occur 8 days one Roman week before the ides, i. The calends are always the first day of the month, and before Julius Caesar's reform fell sixteen days two Roman weeks after the ides except the ides of February and the intercalary month. The Hebrew calendar has 12 or 13 months. See Islamic calendar for more information on the Islamic calendar.
The Hindu calendar has various systems of naming the months. The months in the lunar calendar are:. These are also the names used in the Indian national calendar for the newly redefined months.
Purushottam Maas or Adhik Maas translit. The names in the solar calendar are just the names of the zodiac sign in which the sun travels. It is a solar calendar with regular years of days, and leap years of days.
Years are composed of 19 months of 19 days each days , plus an extra period of " Intercalary Days " 4 in regular and 5 in leap years. Days of the year begin and end at sundown. The Persian names are included in the parentheses. It begins on the northern Spring equinox. The Bangla calendar , used in Bangladesh , follows solar months and it has six seasons. The months and seasons in the calendar are:.
The months in the Nanakshahi calendar are: Like the Hindu calendar, the Khmer calendar consists of both a lunar calendar and a solar calendar. The Khmer solar calendar is used more commonly than the lunar calendar.
There are 12 months and the numbers of days follow the Julian and Gregorian calendar. The Khmer lunar calendar contains 12 months; however, the eighth month is repeated as a "leap-month" every two or three years, making 13 months instead of The Tongan calendar is based on the cycles of the moon around the earth in one year. Each full moon Poya day marks the start of a Buddhist lunar month. The old Icelandic calendar is not in official use anymore, but some Icelandic holidays and annual feasts are still calculated from it.
It has 12 months, broken down into two groups of six often termed "winter months" and "summer months". The calendar is peculiar in that the months always start on the same weekday rather than on the same date. February 8 to February It is the first of five months to have a length of less than 31 days the other four months that fall under this category are: April, June, September, and November , and the only month to have a length of less than 30 days, as the other eleven months have a length of at least 30 days.
This year February had 28 days in it. February is the third and last month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere , February is the third and last month of summer the seasonal equivalent of August in the Northern Hemisphere, in meteorological reckoning. The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum , which means purification , via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 full moon in the old lunar Roman calendar.
January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. They were added by Numa Pompilius about BC. February remained the last month of the calendar year until the time of the decemvirs c. At certain intervals February was truncated to 23 or 24 days, and a day intercalary month, Intercalaris , was inserted immediately after February to realign the year with the seasons.
These days do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar. Under the reforms that instituted the Julian calendar , Intercalaris was abolished, leap years occurred regularly every fourth year, and in leap years February gained a 29th day. Thereafter, it remained the second month of the calendar year, meaning the order that months are displayed January, February, March, Even during the Middle Ages, when the numbered Anno Domini year began on March 25 or December 25, the second month was February whenever all twelve months were displayed in order.
The Gregorian calendar reforms made slight changes to the system for determining which years were leap years and thus contained a day February. Historical names for February include the Old English terms Solmonath mud month and Kale-monath named for cabbage as well as Charlemagne 's designation Hornung. In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu , meaning "month of the pearl"; when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice.
In , a proposal was put forward in Kmetijske in rokodelske novice by the Slovene Society of Ljubljana to call this month talnik related to ice melting , but it did not stick. Having only 28 days in common years, February is the only month of the year that can pass without a single full moon. Using Coordinated Universal Time as the basis for determining the date and time of a full moon, this last happened in and will next happen in February is also the only month of the calendar that, once every six years and twice every 11 years consecutively, either back into the past or forward into the future, has four full 7-day weeks.
In countries that start their week on a Monday, it occurs as part of a common year starting on Friday , in which February 1st is a Monday and the 28th is a Sunday; this occurred in , , , , and , and occur will again in In countries that start their week on a Sunday, it occurs in a common year starting on Thursday , with the next occurrence in , and previous occurrences in , , and The pattern is broken by a skipped leap year, but no leap year has been skipped since and no others will be skipped until This list does not necessarily imply either official status or general observance.