How Many Months Have 31 Days?

If you work with time tracking or if you plan your events you may need to find out how many days are there in a month. Some months have 30 days while others have 31 and one of them has less than 30 days only. This article will explain in detail which month of the year has 31 days and also tips that one can use to remember information.

How Many Months Have 31 Days

Using the international calendar which is the Gregorian calendar today, there are seven months with thirty-one days. These months are located throughout the year so that approximately half of the months have 31 days in the period. The names of the months with 31 days are as follows:

• January
• March
• May
• July
• August
• October
• December

These mentioned months also play a part in the balance of the calendar, this calendar is basically made to follow with that of the revolution of the earth around the sun. The reason why months have different numbers of days, 28, 30 or 31, can be attributed to the historical development of the calendar which will be explained in the later part of this article. But let me begin with an attempt to explain as to why the seven calendar months in a year have 31 days.

Why Are There 31 Days in These Months?

The distribution of 31-day months is not random in any sense of this word. It has its origins based on the previous practices that have occurred across many years. The existence of the current and official calendar dates back to the ancient Roman calendar that was later modified and formed the present; the Gregorian calendar.

The calendar of the earliest Romans probably included just ten months, with varying lengths of 30 or 31 days. Years later refinements were made to advance the positions of the calendar to accord with the solar year. The first one to introduce a number of reforms was Julius Caesar so as to create a system of the Julian calendar which added two months of January and February and equally set standard lengths of months. Rome’s fixed calendar was supposed to properly reflect the revolution of Earth around the sun but Caesar’s break through the traditional schedule required additional changes.

The last drift adjustment was in the 16th century when the pope Gregory XIII introduced the gregorian calendar to counteract all the drift that had been made over a period of time. The Gregorian system kept the same principle of months of 28, 30 and 31 days in order to attempt to bring back the seasonal calendar as close as possible to the existing months.

How to Remember Which Months Have 31 Days

Well, if you have problems memorizing which ones among these months have 31 days, there are two important tips that can help you. One is the Knuckle which involves using your hands to easily remember the months that are longer by placing your hand open with the palm facing you and reciting Blubber Down with every knuckle bump as you go.

The knuckle mnemonic is a simple way to remember which months have 31 days. Here’s how it works:

• Make a Fist – Each knuckle and the dip between represents a month.
• Start with January on the first knuckle (31 days), followed by February in the dip (28/29 days).
• Alternate Knuckles and Dips – March (knuckle, 31 days), April (dip, 30 days), and so on.
• Double Knuckle for July and August – Both have 31 days, counted on the same knuckle.
• Finish October and December – Both land on knuckles and have 31 days.

Months With Fewer Than 31 Days

While seven months have 31 days, there are five months in the calendar year with fewer than 31 days, each with its unique historical and astronomical significance. These months are: Then there are April, June, September, November and February with February being the month that is generally much shorter than all the other months in a year.

February, which is the second month of the year, has only 28 days in the normal year and 29 in the leap year. These are the additional days that are given to make for the thirty-five days the earth takes to go round the sun—thus the providing of the extra seven days every four years called leap years. It makes it easier to explain how the use of the additional day in February can help to bring the calendar into line with the true period of the earth’s rotation.

This is a leap year system that was adopted when Julius Caesar implemented the Julian calendar meant to fix this drift in . The system was later improved in the Gregorian calendar in 1582 to provide an improved level of accuracy.

Why February has fewer days As you know, February has fewer days than other months for historical reasons. It was the last month of the year in the old Roman calendar which had only 10 months. I do know that when the Romans tacked on January and February to the front end of the calendar, it kept fewer days because it was less significant. In the course of the years the changes made by Romans and Julius secured February to be always short, establishing it as the shortest month of the year to this present time.

Other Months with 30 Days:  Apart from February, four other months have 30 days:

• April
• June
• September
• November

These months are interspersed between the longer months to balance out the calendar. The alternation between months with 30 and 31 days helps keep the calendar in alignment with the solar year. By distributing the varying lengths across the year, the calendar ensures that the total number of days (365 or 366 in a leap year) remains consistent, allowing for the predictable cycle of seasons.

FAQs

How many days are in a month?

The actual number of the days in a month may vary depending upon the certain month of any certain year and the calendar used. Most of these months contain thirty or thirty one days while February is generally a twenty eight day month except in certain years which February has twenty nine days. The variation is as a result of the design of the current calendar which is based more on lunar and solar cycles of the earth.

Why does February have fewer days than other months?
February has got fewer days because when it was a part of the ancient Roman calendar that was recently reformed, February remained to be the month with comparatively fewer days. Next years were added, with an additional day in February every four years to help the calendar to get in line with the Earth’s orbit.

Is there any month that has more than 31 days?
No, the maximum number of days in any month is 31. This applies to seven months of the year: January, March, May, July, August, October, and December.

What is the longest month of the year?
All months with 31 days are of equal length. There is no month longer than 31 days.

What is a leap year, and how does it affect February?
A leap year happens once in every four years to incorporate a day on the calendar’s month of February due to the Earth taking nearly 365.25 days to orbit around the sun. In a calendar year, February has thirty days, but whenever a year is a leap year, the month of February is provided with an extra day thereby having twenty-nine days.

To sum up, there are seven months with 31 days: January, March, and May, July, August and October and December.