Months

There are twelve months in a year:

Months in Year


Here are the twelve months in detail:

Month
Number
Month
In 3
letters
Days in Month
1
January
Jan 31
2
February
Feb 28 (29 in leap years)
3
March
Mar 31
4
April
Apr 30
5
May
May 31
6
June
Jun 30
7
July
Jul 31
8
August
Aug 31
9
September
Sep 30
10
October
Oct 31
11
November
Nov 30
12
December
Dec 31

February

The strangest month of all is February.

February has only 28 days, but on Leap Years February has 29 days!

How to Remember

You can remember how many days in each month using this rhyme:

30 days has September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have 31
Except February alone,
Which has 28 days clear
And 29 in each leap year.

Or you can use the "knuckle method":

months on knuckles
A knuckle is "31 days", and in between each knuckle it isn't.
And where you hands meet, the two knuckles are "July, August", which both have 31 days.
(Note: the last knuckle isn't used)

Example: October is on a knuckles, so it has 31 days

But November is not on a knuckle (and in this case has 30 days)

See The Days in Each Month

See the days in each month (use the arrows to change the month):

images/calendar.js

The Moon

Moon The months were originally based on the movement of the moon (the words moon and month are related), but this did not work out perfectly to one year.

So they changed how many days in some months to make them all add up to one year.

 

Fun Facts!

Ancient Romans had 10 Months:

  • Martius for the god Mars
  • Aprilis (aperio is Latin for "open", and flowers blossom in this month)
  • Maius for the goddess Maia
  • Iunius for the goddess Juno
  • Quintilis from Latin quinque meaning five
  • Sextilis for six
  • Septembris for seven
  • Octobris for eight
  • Novembris for nine
  • Decembris for ten (remember "Decimal" means based on 10)

Then around 710 BC Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome, added January (for the god Janus) and February (from Latin februum meaning purification).

Unfortunately this wrecked the nice numbering system of the later months.

Many years later (44 BC) Quintilis was renamed Iulius (July) in honour of Julius Caesar, and in 8 BC Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August) in honour of Augustus.

 

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