Facts about February

Despite being the shortest month of the calendar year, February has an interesting history. Early calendars marked the start of the new year in March, but when the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, rose to the throne in 713 BC, he synchronized the calendar to the lunar year. That required the addition of January and February.

• February was named after an end-of-year celebration called “Februa,” also known as “Februalia” or “Februatio.” Februa was a Roman festival of ritual purification and washing — a spring cleaning of sorts. This festival was later incorporated into Lupercalia, another Roman celebration that has ties to Groundhog Day. January was actually added after February and was named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings.

• Both January and February originally had 28 days. However, at the time, even numbers were considered to bring bad luck, so Pompilius added another day to January. However, February was left with 28 days and had long been considered an unlucky month.

• February was the last month of the year for around 200 years, until the Gregorian calendar designated January the start of the new year.

• Julius Caesar is responsible for adjusting the calendar and the length of February’s length. In the Julian calendar, 10 days were added to the calendar year in various months, and February was increased every four years (leap year) to 29 days to coordinate the calendar year to the solar cycle of roughly 365.2425 days.

• During common years, February can pass by without a single full moon.

• British mathematician John Conway determined that some dates inevitably share the same weekday within any given year. The last day of February will be on the same weekday as March 7, April 4, May 9, June 6, July 11, August 8, September 5, October 10, November 7, and December 12.

• In the northern hemisphere, February is the equivalent to the third month of winter. In the southern hemisphere, it is the third month of summer.

• In Finnish, February is called “helmikuu,” meaning “month of the pearl,” which refers to the snow melting on tree branches. • During leap years, February will end on the same day that it begins.

• February’s birthstone is the amethyst, which symbolizes piety, sincerity and spiritual wisdom.

• Residents of St. Lucia celebrate their independence on February 22.

• Despite being the shortest month of the year, February is packed with events. In addition to Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day, World Marriage Day, and Presidents’ Day, February is when Flag Day is celebrated in both Canada and Mexico. February also serves as Black History Month.

February is notable for many reasons and packs quite a number of activities into its few weeks.

Caribbean culture gave rise to the zombie

Fans of the popular television show “The Walking Dead” know that the show follows a group of people trying to survive a postapocalyptic world dominated by reanimated dead humans who feed on the flesh of other living creatures. While they’re referred to as “walkers” by everyone on the show, viewers are led to believe these creatures are “zombies.”

Zombies have long been a subject of horror movies, video games and scary tales. Zombies are believed to be corpses without souls who have been reanimated through supernatural means. Unbeknownst to many, the lumbering undead on the search for fresh brains that makes up the contemporary zombie characterization actually trace their roots to the Caribbean. Some speculate the word “zombie” was derived from West African languages. The Oxford English Dictionary says “zombie” is a word that was first recorded in English in 1819. It is related to words zumbi, meaning “fetish,” and nzambi meaning, “a god.”

In spirit religions, such as the voudou (voodoo) practiced by some Haitians, zombies are not flesh-eating corpses but the unfortunate dead whose souls were stolen. According to content published by the University of Michigan, believers of voodoo believed people could die naturally through sickness or a god’s will. Those who died unnaturally due to murder, suicide or before their time would linger at their graves until the gods offered them respite. During this period, souls would be vulnerable to powerful sorcerers known as “boko.” A boko could capture the soul and keep it in a bottle, controlling the undead body or just the soul. Under the best circumstances, zombies helped the boko, but unsavory boko could use the zombies as slaves. Many Haitians did not fear the zombies, but rather were afraid of becoming zombies against their will.

Another interpretation published in The Atlantic says zombies were of their own making. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Haiti was ruled by France and known as Saint-Domingue. During this period, African slaves were used to work on sugar plantations where the working and living conditions were brutal. Death was seen as a release back to their home countries. However, suicide was frowned upon and would not allow souls to return to Africa. The souls of slaves who committed suicide would be condemned to roam plantations for eternity.

When the United States briefly occupied Haiti in the early twentieth century, zombie stories and rumors began to grow popular. Stories of zombies permeated American culture. Writers and filmmakers have long offered their own interpretations of zombies. However, many of these interpretations have little, if any, similarities to the zombie stories rooted in Caribbean culture.

Time to talk turkey

Few foods receive the fanfare of turkey come the holiday season. The National Turkey Federation says Americans eat 46 million turkeys each Thanksgiving and another 22 million on Christmas. An additional 19 million enjoy turkey as part of their Easter celebrations. 
Though turkey is enjoyed throughout the year, it is most popular during the holiday season. Some celebrants may want to know more about this beloved bird before sinking their teeth into their next holiday meal. The following turkey tidbits may surprise you.

• Turkeys are large game birds that are closely related to chickens, pheasants and quail.
• The turkey’s scientific name is “meleagris gallopavo,” which is the wild turkey from which the domesticated turkey many people eat descends. There is another species of turkey known as the ocellated turkey, which is native to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.
• By the early 1900s, the wild turkey neared extinction. Restoration projects have increased the number of turkeys from approximately 30,000 birds back then to nearly seven million now.
• Despite their size, turkeys can fly in the wild. They often perch in trees to sleep to protect themselves from predators. Some domesticated turkeys may not fly because they have been bred to be overly large to produce more breast meat.
• The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds.
• A male turkey is called a “tom” or a “gobbler,” while female turkeys are referred to as “hens.” Only the male will make the familiar gobbling sound, which is used to attract mates.
• A hen is smaller than a gobbler and does not have the distinctive beard of modified feathers that gobblers have on their breasts. Males also have sharp spurs on their legs for fighting.
• Male and female turkeys also can be differentiated by their droppings. Male droppings are spiral-shaped, while females’ look like the letter J.
• Both genders of turkey have snoods (the dangling appendage on the face) as well as red wattles under their chins.
• A hen can lay about 10 to 12 eggs over a period of two weeks. The eggs will incubate for 28 days before hatching. Baby turkeys are called “poults.”
• Turkeys and peacocks may look similar, but they are not closely related.
• Turkeys have excellent vision due to their eyes being located on the sides of their head. This gives the birds periscopic vision.
• The gizzard is a part of the turkey’s stomach that contains tiny stones that the bird has swallowed. The stones facilitate the digestion process.
• Benjamin Franklin did not support the bald eagle as the nation’s symbol, feeling the turkey would be a better choice. In a letter to his daughter, he wrote, “He [bald eagle] is a rank coward; the little king-bird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours …”
• Turkeys will have 3,500 feathers at maturity. Rumor has it the costume worn by the “Sesame Street” character “Big Bird” is made of turkey feathers.
• The turkey shares its name with a country. But why? A turkey bears some resemblance to the guinea fowl. Though it is native to eastern Africa, the guinea fowl was imported to Europe through the Ottoman Empire and came to be called the “turkey-cock” or “turkey-hen.” When settlers in the New World began to send similar-looking fowl back to Europe, they were mistakenly called “turkeys.”
• Despite an abundance of turkeys being eaten between November and January, June is National Turkey Month.