You know it as the shortest month of the year—or, depending on where you live, the coldest. But, do you know where the name February came from?

　　我们都知道二月是一年中天数最少的一个月，也是最冷的一个月，当然，取决于你居住在哪儿。但是你知道二月为什么叫做February吗?

　　When in Rome

　　罗马时代

　　Well, first, some calendar-related history. The original Roman calendar only had ten months, because, curiously, the Romans didn’t demarcate winter. (Sometimes, we wish we could do the same.)

　　首先呢，是一些历法的原因。 最初的罗马历法只有十个月，因为奇怪的是，罗马人并没有划定冬天。(如果可以，我们也想这么干……)

　　In the 700s BC, the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, changed that, adding January and February to the end of the calendar in order to conform to how long it actually takes the Earth to go around the Sun. The two new months were both originally 28 days long. It is lost to history why January acquired more days, though there are various unverifiable hypotheses.

　　而到了公元前700年，罗马的第二任国王Numa Pompilius改变了这个现状，他把一月和二月添加到日历的最后，以便将时历和地球绕太阳行进的实际时间相统一。这两个新添的月份最初都是28天，后来不知道为什么，一月就比二月多了几天，虽然关于此有各种假设，人们还是无从得知其原因。

　　At that time, March 1 became New Year’s Day, but later, in 153 BC, the beginning of the year was moved to January 1.

　　当时，3月1日是元旦，但在后来的公元前153年，新年第一天才被改到1月1日。

　　February used to be called cabbage month?

　　“二月”曾经被称为“白菜月”?

　　Before we adopted the Latin name for our second month, Old English used much more vibrant names to describe the month now known as February. The most common Old English name was Solmonath, which literally means “mud month.”

　　在我们用拉丁文命名这个第二个月份之前，古英语曾用了一个更加生动的名字来描述我们现在所说的“二月”。 最常见的古英文名称是“Solmonath”，字面意思是“泥月”。

　　A lesser-used term was Kale-monath, which meant “cabbage month.” Perhaps, the medieval English were eating a lot of cabbage in February? Strange.

　　用得比较少的一个词是“Kale-monath”，意思是“白菜月”。可能中世纪的英国人在二月份吃白菜比较多?真是奇怪啊……

　　Where did the word February come from?

　　February一词的来源

　　Since other months, like January, are named after Roman gods, you’d be forgiven for thinking February was named after the Roman god Februus.

　　因为其他几个月份都是以罗马众神命名，比如一月，你会觉得二月也是以罗马神法布如斯(Februus)的名字命名的，这可以理解。

　　But, the word February comes from the Roman festival of purification called Februa, during which people were ritually washed. In this case, the god was named after the festival, not the other way around.

　　但是，“February”这个词其实是来自罗马的牧神节Februa，在节日期间人们将接受洗礼。罗马神法布如斯的名字恰由节日名称而来，而不是先有神名，再有节日。

　　Must have been a pretty good festival.