February: traditions and history

February is one of those months that seem to be there because we need twelve to make a year, they had 28 days left and they decided to add a new month. With the excitement of that extra day every four years. The excitement of Christmas it is long gone and it seems like a long way for the next celebrations or the spring and summer time it seems like a sad month with nothing to do right? Wrong
Maybe because that is the popular thinking February evolved over the years to be the month with more exciting events and the month where important things are celebrated. Let’s take a look to some events that will happen this February over the world in different fields.

Black History Month 

Mostly celebrated in America, February was the month chosen to celebrate the contribution of African American to the United States. With time, this tradition spread to other countries that also celebrate the black history month. February was chosen to be black history month since Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass both were born in this month, and we all know how important they were among the African American community.

Groundhog Day

Another American tradition is Groundhog Day, celebrated February 2. Famous because of the Bill Murray movie, this day has it´s own history and it’s a real celebration. On February 2, 1887 in Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney was where this tradition started. The tradition states that, if the groundhog comes out of his hole and runs back inside as soon, he gets scared by his own shadow, then it means there will be six more weeks of winter. On the other hand, if the rodent just chills because there is no shadow that means an early spring this year. 

Saint Valentine

There is no need to explain what is Saint Valentines Day. Every February 14th love is all around, the official day of the year for love. But, why is it February 14th? There are many theories but we will just mention 3.
The first one, and probably the most popular, is about the pagan celebration of Lupercalia a roman celebration to fertility in which couples were pair out in order to procreate. 
The second one and maybe less controversial stays that by the middle of February it was bird´s maiden season in England and France, which lead to choose this as the day of love. 
A third one comes back to the beginning of this post; February is basically a slow month so with commercial purposes the tradition was set on the middle of the slowest month of the year to increase sales. 

We could keep showing you events on February like the Oscars, the famous carnivals all over the world or the World Bartender Day, but we are no even in February so just stay tunned for more interesting thing coming next month. 

Also, if you are planning to travel to the states to live the Groundhog Day in person make sure you come to Eurochange in order to  exchange your euros into US dollars. At the same time if you are with your loved one in Spain during Saint Valentines Day, you can change any currency into Euros at any of our offices with the best rates and the best service, and of course the best treatment by our agents.