Another name for February."Kisaragi"

It's February.

 In Japan, January is commonly called “1-gatu (ichi-gatu)” February is called “2gatu (ni-gatu)” and March is called “3gatu (san-gatu)” but there are many other ways to call it.

Today, I would like to talk about “Kisaragi,” another name for February.
The word “kisaragi” means to put on layers of clothes to protect against the cold, and since February is the coldest month of the year, it is used to describe it.
“Kisaragi” is expressed with two kanji characters, which are the characters used to express the meaning of the word.The first is not read as “kisa” and the second as "ragi.

This kanji is derived from a word found in the oldest Chinese dictionary, “Jiga”. It came to Japan from China during the Heian period (794-1185). In other words, the ancient Japanese kept the form of the letters but adapted the reading to suit the climate of Japan.

“Kisaragi” has another kanji character. This three-character kanji is easier to understand than the two-character one, both in meaning and in the way it is called. However, it is not used very often. I do not know the reason for this, but two characters look more beautiful and cooler than three characters.
I think that the Japanese in the past gave priority to this beauty.

Note that this kind of calling is not used in daily conversation. It is an expression often seen in letter writing, haiku, poetry, etc. Generally, we use the numbers “1gatu”, ‘2gatu’, “3gatu”. Since this is an old way of saying it, I check each time I use it to make sure I am not mistaken.

It is a bit difficult to express, but I think it is beautiful Japanese, whether written in kanji or read out loud in words.

(Oni/Demons are sometimes called Kisaragi.)