Born in February

The name and the season

February takes its name from the Latin februa, the means of ritual purification, and from the Roman purification rites held in the middle of the month. In the early Roman calendar it was the last month of the year, which is why it was the month that absorbed the leftover days: the Romans inserted an intercalary month after it in some years, and Caesar's reform placed the leap day here. It remains the shortest month, with twenty-eight days and twenty-nine in leap years. Bede reports that the Anglo-Saxons called it Solmonath, which he explained as the 'month of cakes' offered to their gods. In northern Europe it is the hinge between deep winter and the first signs of spring.

Festivals and folklore

The month opens with Imbolc and the feast of St Brigid on 1 February, followed by Candlemas on 2 February, the Christian feast of the Purification of the Virgin and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, when candles for the year were blessed. Weather lore attached itself to the day: a bright Candlemas foretold more winter, an idea that survives in America as Groundhog Day. In Rome the Lupercalia on 15 February was a fertility and purification rite in which young men ran through the city striking onlookers with strips of goatskin. St Valentine's Day on 14 February became associated with lovers only in the late Middle Ages, in the circle of Chaucer and his contemporaries. Lent and the carnival that precedes it often begin in February. See also the Wheel of the Year for modern Pagan observance of Imbolc.

Birthstone and birth flower

February's stone is the amethyst in both the modern and the traditional lists; some older lists also give the hyacinth (a reddish zircon) or the pearl. The Greek name amethystos means 'not drunken', and ancient and medieval writers repeated the belief that the stone guarded against intoxication. Its violet colour made it a stone of bishops' rings and of sobriety and spiritual devotion in Christian symbolism. The month's flowers are the violet, a Victorian emblem of modesty and faithfulness, and the primrose, the 'first rose' of the year and a symbol of early youth.

Traits tradition gives to people born this month

The two sun signs of the month are Aquarius and Pisces, and popular birth-month portraits blend them. February people are traditionally described as original, idealistic and sympathetic, with independent minds and a strong sense of fairness, and as loyal friends once trust is won. Almanac writers add that they may seem detached or dreamy, preferring their own path to convention, and that their kindness can make them easy to impose upon. These are traditional associations rather than findings: research has not shown that birth month or sign shapes character.