Clearly, we used to only have 10 months in the calendar (as evidenced not only by Decem, but also Sept, Oct and Nov). I wonder when it was shifted and why? And, yeah, it does seem dumb that they wouldn't distribute January and March a little differently so that Feb wasn't unnaturally short. I get that there need to be a certain number of days in each quarter, to make the equinoxes/solstices come out right, but why the first three months couldn't each be 30 days doesn't make sense.
But I don't think Feb was considered the end of the year (except in some Asian lunar new years), given that January is named after Janus, the two-faced god, so he was looking both back (at the old year) and forward (to the new one).
I think we've always had 12 months, since months are associated with the moon, and the moon's cycle is about 29.53 days. And many cultures have started the year in the spring or on the equinox -- March. (Some still do.) This also makes the Sept/Oct/Nov/Dec names work, but Janus doesn't make sense as month 11. But the 11th month could have been renamed when it became the 1st month.
The Jewish calendar has a leap month to make up for 12 lunar cycles being shorter than a year.
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But I don't think Feb was considered the end of the year (except in some Asian lunar new years), given that January is named after Janus, the two-faced god, so he was looking both back (at the old year) and forward (to the new one).
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The Jewish calendar has a leap month to make up for 12 lunar cycles being shorter than a year.
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