A month is a unit of time, used with calendars, that is approximately as long as a natural orbital

period of the Moon; the words month and Moon are cognates. The traditional concept arose with
the cycle of Moon phases; such lunar months ("lunations") are synodic months and last
approximately 29.53 days, making for roughly 12.37 such months in one Earth year. From
excavated tally sticks, researchers have deduced that people counted days in relation to the
Moon's phases as early as the Paleolithic age. Synodic months, based on the Moon's orbital
period with respect to the Earth–Sun line, are still the basis of many calendars today, and are
used to divide the year.
Calendars, such as the internationally used Gregorian calendar, developed from the Roman
calendar system divide the year into 12 months that individually last between 28 and 31 days.
The names of the months were Anglicized from various Latin names and events important to
Rome, except for the months 9–12, which are named after the Latin numerals (septem, octo,
novem, decem). The only month with a variable number of days is the second month, February,
which has 29 days during a leap year and 28 days otherwise.

The following types of months are mainly of significance in astronomy, most of them (but not the
distinction between sidereal and tropical months) first recognized in Babylonian lunar astronomy.

1. The sidereal month is defined as the Moon's orbital period in a non-rotating frame of
reference (which on average is equal to its rotation period in the same frame). It is about
27.32166 days (27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11.6 seconds). It is closely equal to the
time it takes the Moon to twice pass a "fixed" star (different stars give different results
because all have a very small proper motion and are not really fixed in position).
2. A synodic month is the most familiar lunar cycle, defined as the time interval between
two consecutive occurrences of a particular phase (such as new moon or full moon) as
seen by an observer on Earth. The mean length of the synodic month is 29.53059 days
(29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.8 seconds). Due to the eccentricity of the lunar orbit
around Earth (and to a lesser degree, the Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun), the
length of a synodic month can vary by up to seven hours.
3. The tropical month is the average time for the Moon to pass twice through the
same equinox point of the sky. It is 27.32158 days, very slightly shorter than the sidereal
month (27.32166) days, because of precession of the equinoxes.
4. An anomalistic month is the average time the Moon takes to go from perigee to perigee
—the point in the Moon's orbit when it is closest to Earth. An anomalistic month is about
27.55455 days on average.
5. The draconic month, draconitic month, or nodal month is the period in which the Moon
returns to the same node of its orbit; the nodes are the two points where the Moon's orbit
crosses the plane of the Earth's orbit. Its duration is about 27.21222 days on average.
A synodic month is longer than a sidereal month because the Earth-Moon system is orbiting the
Sun in the same direction as the Moon is orbiting the Earth. The Sun moves eastward with
respect to the stars (as does the Moon) and it takes about 2.2 days longer for the Moon to return
to the same apparent position with respect to the Sun.
An anomalistic month is longer than a sidereal month because the perigee moves in the same
direction as the Moon is orbiting the Earth, one revolution in nine years. Therefore, the Moon
takes a little longer to return to perigee than to return to the same star.
At the simplest level, most well-known lunar calendars are based on the initial approximation that
2 lunations last 59 solar days: a 30-day full month followed by a 29-day hollow month — but
this is only roughly accurate and regularly needs intercalation (correction) by a leap day.
Additionally, the synodic month does not fit easily into the solar (or 'tropical') year, which makes
accurate, rule-based lunisolar calendars that combine the two cycles complicated. The most
common solution to this problem is the Metonic cycle, which takes advantage of the fact that 235
lunations are approximately 19 tropical years (which add up to not quite 6,940 days): 12 years
have 12 lunar months, and 7 years are 13 lunar months long. However, a Metonic
calendar based year will drift against the seasons by about one day every 2 centuries. Metonic
calendars include the calendar used in the Antikythera Mechanism about 21 centuries ago, and
the Hebrew calendar.
Alternatively in a pure lunar calendar, years are defined as having always 12 lunations, so a year
is 354 or 355 days long: the Islamic calendar is the prime example. Consequently, an Islamic
year is about 11 days shorter than a solar year and cycles through the seasons in about 33 solar
= 34 lunar years: the Islamic New Year has a different Gregorian calendar date in each (solar)
year.
Purely solar calendars often have months which no longer relate to the phase of the Moon, but
are based only on the motion of the Sun relative to the equinoxes and solstices, or are purely
conventional like in the widely used Gregorian calendar.
The complexity required in an accurate lunisolar calendar may explain why solar calendars have
generally replaced lunisolar and lunar calendars for civil use in most societies.

The famous mnemonic Thirty days hath September is a common way of teaching the lengths of
the months in the English-speaking world. The knuckles of the four fingers of one's hand and the
spaces between them can be used to remember the lengths of the months. By making a fist,
each month will be listed as one proceeds across the hand. All months landing on a knuckle are
31 days long and those landing between them are 30 days long, with variable February being the
remembered exception. When the knuckle of the index finger is reached (July), go over to the
first knuckle on the other fist, held next to the first (or go back to the first knuckle) and continue
with August. This physical mnemonic has been taught to primary school students for many
decades, if not centuries.[3][4]
This cyclical pattern of month lengths matches the musical keyboard alternation of wide white
keys (31 days) and narrow black keys (30 days). The note F corresponds to January, the
note F♯ corresponds to February, the exceptional 28–29 day month, and so on.