A month of anticipation
Fickle February brings a mix of looking backward and forward to spring, wintry blast and budding branches. Some say Valentine’s Day was invented to break the icicles around our hibernating hearts, to wake us up to warmer thoughts. Or maybe it really is to sell more stuff — but even that animates!
Actually there are some events to celebrate in February. The following summary is taken from www.almanac.com:
February 2 is Groundhog Day—the day we discover if winter will last six more weeks — or not. Groundhog Day goes beyond Phil. It’s rooted in the movement of the Earth around the Sun. In the Northern Hemisphere, this date marks the midpoint between the winter solstice in December and the spring equinox (or vernal equinox) in March.
February 10 is the Lunar New Year. Celebrated widely throughout East Asia, this holiday begins with the first new Moon after the Winter Solstice and is associated with the Chinese Zodiac.
February 12 is Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday. The 16th president of the United States was born in a one-room, 16x18-foot log cabin with a dirt floor. February is also Black History Month, linked to the Civil War and The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 while Lincoln was in the White House.
February 13 is Mardi Gras (aka “Fat Tuesday” or Shrove Tuesday), which is the final feasting day before the tradition of Lent. The next day is Ash Wednesday, beginning the period of sacrifice leading up to the Christian celebration of Easter.
February 14 is Valentine’s Day. The holiday is celebrated with hearts, flowers, and chocolate, but it has darker origins. There was a St. Valentine for whom the day is named, but, as in many Christian traditions, it replaced a pagan fertility celebration.
It was to honor Lupa, the wolf who was said to have suckled Romulus and Remus (who founded the city of Rome in 753 B.C., according to legend). The festival was also dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, thus the season to start sowing seeds and to hope for a fertile year of crops.
The pagan festival itself involved drunken young men running through the streets whipping women with hides of the animals they had just sacrificed. Women believed the rite brought them fertility, so were willing participants.
In legend, the Emperor Claudius II prohibited soldiers to marry. It is said Valentine defied those orders, secretly marrying young couples to spare husbands from war. He was imprisoned, tortured and beheaded. According to another legend, St. Valentine signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and healed from blindness.
February 15 is Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday. She was arrested for voting in 1872, before women had the right to vote. Anthony, born in 1820, is best known as an advocate for women’s suffrage, but she began her career as an outspoken proponent of temperance. She was not allowed to speak publicly, however, because she was not a man.
February 15 is also National Flag of Canada Day.
February 19 is Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday also known as Washington’s Birthday, that is celebrated on the third Monday in February to honor both presidents born in this month. (George Washington’s actual birthday is February 22) It usually ends a 3-day weekend.
February 29 is the leap of Leap Year 2024!
"February is always a bad month for TV sports. Football is gone, basketball is plodding along in the annual mid-season doldrums, and baseball is not even mentioned." —Hunter S. Thompson
