February Treated With Disdain in Ancient Times

Which month has 28 days? They all do. February has 28 days every three out of four years and gets an added day during leap years. That added day helps correct the 365-day year that is slightly less than 365.25 days long when the earth completes its annual trip around the sun.

Ancient Romans, a superstitious society, thought February was an unlucky month. It was perceived to be bad luck because it was the shortest month, and it came in cold weather. February originally was at the end of the year. That placed it in the coldest part of winter, where it was both uncomfortable and unproductive for the agrarian Roman society.

The shortest month was put at the end of the year when Roman Emperor Numa Pompilius added January and February as the 11th and 12th months in circa 700 B.C. Until then the Roman calendar had 10 months that totaled 304 days. Pompilius wanted the year to consist of a 12-month lunar cycle to better match the planting and harvesting cycles. His year was 355 days long. It was more accurate but obviously allowed for inaccuracies as the seasons and months still misaligned over time.

The emperor selected 28 days for the disliked month of February to get the number of days in the year to more or less match the lunar cycle. Most of Europe used the Pompilius calendar for about 654 years until Julius Caesar invented his calendar.

It’s called the Julian calendar after Caesar who finished it in 46 B.C. It consisted of 365 days and 12 months. He moved January and February to the first and second months of the year. Caesar’s was the most accurate calendar to date and lasted for more than one thousand years after it became the standard in 45 B.C. He was assassinated the following year on the Ides of March in 44 B.C.

Caesar’s genius in computing the most accurate calendar of its day was in his use of a leap year that added one day to February every four years. That added day compensated for the 1/4th day that gets added each year.

Since the earth’s year is not quite 365.25 days, inaccuracies from previous and Julius Caesar’s calendars kept building up until the current Gregorian calendar was accepted worldwide. Also called the Western and Christian calendar, it was started in 1582 after 10 days were dropped from October of that year. The lost days brought the new calendar into accurate alignment with the earth’s orbit to within 1 day every 3,231 years.

Superstitions about February 29th started shortly after the Julian calendar became accepted as the best one to use. One myth was counter to the Roman belief that the second month was unlucky. People began to believe that it was a lucky omen to begin any endeavor or business action on February 29th. Such actions, they believed, would guarantee success to the originator. The good luck extended through the whole month of February in a leap year.

Many societies believed that women seeking a husband could ask a bachelor of their choice on February 29th to marry them without causing any social reprimands. The superstition could extend for the entire leap year. Bachelors who were selected by single women for marriage could be legally fined money and/or gifts if they refused the proposals.

February started as a month disliked by Roman citizens more than 2,700 years ago. Myths associated with it today give it meanings of love and success.

Thanks for taking time to read about our shortest month. Come back to this space at the first part of March for another interesting subject. Read my website at www.joevlatino.com for information about “The Device," my book of short stories that can be found on Amazon.

U.S. Presidential Term Limits End at Ten Years

George Washington supported the opinion of our founding fathers that a two-term limit for the office of U.S. president would prevent the executive office from evolving into a monarchy. Our first president publicly addressed his feelings about this unofficial law at the end of his second term when he refused to run for office again.

The unwritten, two-term rule allowed for a vice president to assume up to two years of a president’s term and still have the possibility of  being elected to two consecutive terms as president. That meant the office of U.S. president could extend up to ten years.

Our 31st president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, broke the unwritten law when he completed a third term and then entered a fourth term as president in 1944. Roosevelt died from a cerebral hemorrhage in April, 1945. Vice President Harry S. Truman then became president.  

The feelings of uncertainly whether our country might go to war and then the beginning of our involvement in WWII at the end of 1941 dominated public opinion to keep re-electing Roosevelt. His unprecedented four elections resulted from the public view that stability was needed in the national leadership. His record of winning four consecutive elections as president will never be broken.

Washington’s belief about limiting the term of a president became a law 164 years after he was the first president, with the passing of the 22nd Amendment. The 64th anniversary of that law is the 27th of this month.

The threat of a world-wide conflict that became World War II loomed over the United States in the late 1930s as Hitler’s German Army invaded parts of Europe, and Japan became an ally to the Nazis. The Democratic Party made FDR its candidate for a third and a fourth term with the support of the country’s voters who put their trust into Roosevelt’s abilities as WWII continued.

While Truman was in office, the U.S. Congress passed the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution on March 21, 1947. The amendment started the process to make the two-year term limit for president a law. It took five years for the amendment to become law. Thirty-six states ratified the 22nd Amendment on Feb. 27, 1951. That was the required three quarters of the 48 states that then composed our country.   

Since the 22nd Amendment became law, six presidents have been re-elected to two terms. The six presidents are: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack H. Obama. The law’s intent to keep a U.S. president from assuming too much power is sometimes used for support when people debate the advantage of term limits for other federally elected offices.

Many U.S. senators and representatives make a life-long career of being members of the Congress. Our founding fathers generally agreed that working in politics should be an obligation and a privilege but not a career. The term-limit discussion will likely surface again during the national elections next year.

Two examples of sitting presidents who failed in their attempts to win second terms show the strong influence of public opinion.  

Lyndon B. Johnson became president in 1963 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  Johnson served 14 months (less than two years) of Kennedy’s term and was elected to a full term in 1964. He ran briefly for a second full term in 1968 but withdrew from the race after he barely won the New Hampshire Primary and his poll numbers were meager.

Gerald Ford became president on August 9, 1974 after the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon. Ford served 29 months of Nixon’s remaining administration, and he was eligible to get elected president for a maximum of one term.

He became president by default, so to speak, since he wasn’t elected to the number two seat. Ford was selected to be vice president by Nixon after Vice President Agnew left office. With such a shaky start, Ford was not accepted by the majority of citizens, and he lost the election to Jimmy Carter.

The decision to make the ten year term limit a law in 1951 resulted from feelings of our first U.S. citizens who fought the Revolutionary War to stop the control of the King of England. The English monarchy was the type of rule that Americans wanted to eliminate in the new republic of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, best expressed the sentiment of our people to keep a monarchy out of our government. In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln said our republic was a “…government of the people, by the people, for the people….”

Thanks for reading this blog. Check my website, www.joevlatino.com, for information about my book “The Device.” It’s a compilation of short stories. A new blog will be in this space at the end of the month.

Tutankhamen’s Tomb: Time Capsule for the Boy King

British archeologist Howard Carter strained to see into a small hole he chiseled through a thick, mud wall. Stretching his arm into the opening, he held a candle into the darkness and waited for his eyes to focus in the dim light.

Standing behind him was George Hebert, the Earl of Carnarvon, who paid for the expedition into the hot, Egyptian desert. After several seconds, his patience was gone. The earl asked, “Can you see anything?”

Carter calmly said, “Yes, wonderful things.”

It was February 17, 1923. The men stood at the bottom of sixteen steps that led to the opening of the only pharaoh’s tomb that wasn’t violated by robbers. Excavation of the steps began in November of 1922 after Carter accidently found the top of the first step under the desert surface.

The days of building pyramids to house the bodies of dead kings had passed hundreds of years before the young, 19-year-old Tutankhamun died circa 1346 B.C.  The pharaohs started using tombs that were secretly dug deep into the lifeless landscape of the Valley of the Kings.

Carter spent nearly 31 years searching the Valley of the Kings for any pharaoh’s tomb. Weather conditions were terrible. The average temperature reached 90 degrees in the winter and 120 degrees during the long summer season.

The royal families hoped that using buried graves in such an unhospitable climate would stop tomb robbers from plundering the enormous riches that were put in the pharaoh’s eternal resting places. However, all the gravesites, even the ones underground, were robbed except for the one Carter found. Publicity of the find spread throughout the world, and the Boy King became known as King Tut.

Tutankhamen’s reign was short, only ten years, and the size of his tomb was accordingly small by comparison to most pharaohs. Since the contents of his small tomb were intact, the numerous riches and artifacts inside gave archeologists throughout the world the best insight into the lives of the ancient Egyptians.

The cause of Tutankhamen’s death has encouraged speculation for several years. After the king’s remains were x-rayed, many forensic experts analyzed the results. A popular theory from a few years ago explained that the Boy King was murdered and died from a blow to his head. Further investigations disputed that idea.

Today the popular belief is that King Tut suffered a broken leg injury that probably caused an infection. From the looks of the x-ray of the leg, the king could have endured a long, painful death from gangrene. The injury may have come from a fall from a chariot, but that’s strictly speculation. As pharaoh, he would have been expected to be proficient as a chariot driver.   

When Carter and the members of the expedition broke the wall and stepped into the tomb, they saw a wall made of gold. It was a large golden box that was next to a narrow corridor that led to another box or shrine that contained yet a third container. A fourth shrine inside that one contained a stone sarcophagus that held King Tut’s coffin. The king’s coffin was solid gold and weighed 225 pounds. Tut’s mummified body was inside.

The third shrine held treasures that were placed to help the Boy King make his travels into the outer world. He was considered a living god who would physically leave his tomb. Several model boats were inside the space. Ebony chests contained jewels, clothes, boyhood toys, games, weapons and even musical instruments. These were the items that provided information to modern archeologists about Egyptian society. 

A solid gold death mask dominates all the items found. Its value is priceless.

Inside a chest of alabaster were four, small busts of the pharaoh. Beneath the busts were four miniature coffins that held Tut’s internal organs. During the Egyptian mummification process, the lungs, stomach, intestines, heart and liver were removed and preserved to be used later during the deceased’s travels in the afterlife. Interestingly, human brains had no significance and weren’t preserved. The embalmers used long copper probes and pulled out the brains of the dead a piece at time through the nose.  

Carter’s crew spent months carefully removing and cataloging the thousands of items inside the tomb.  He spent the rest of his life lecturing and touring the world as he spread information about his discovery. All things Egyptian became popular as publicity of King Tut spread.

A fable called “The Pharaoh’s Curse” circulated for many years after Carter’s work. It surmised that the people who opened King Tut’s tomb suffered an early death.  Carter was 64-years-old when he died of lymphoma on March 2, 1939. That dispelled any credibility to the rumor. 

Thanks for reading this blog. Please visit my website at www.joevlatino.com for information about my book of short stories, “The Device.”