Narwhal News 

 Cupid ——————————— 

What is a Cupid, and why is there such a big deal about him? 

As many of you know, Valentines is just around the corner, and there are symbols of

it hanging everywhere. Advertisements on valentines gifts, posters, even little stuffed

Cupids in stores. But you might be wondering, what’s the big deal with the Cupid? Why

is it so important and famous? Read on to find out more.

The Cupid’s Origin

The idea of the Cupid started around the beginning of the Roman Empire, which was

around 27 B.C. He was the Roman god of desire, attraction and affection. He was the

son of Venus and Mercury(Aphrodite and Hermes). He is said to carry a bow with

special arrows. When you were hit by one of these arrows, you didn’t feel any pain, but

you immediately fell in love with the first living thing you saw. This is where, “Love at

First Sight,” came from. His Rise to Fame

Cupid was always known by society in general, but his popularity got a boom when

famous playright Apuleius wrote the story called “Cupid and Psyche.” This story starts in

Psyche’s hometown, where her father boasts,”My daughter is the most beautiful girl in

the world.” Her mother adds on,” Even more beautiful than Aphrodite.” Aphrodite, the

goddess of love and beauty, heard them boasting. She fumed, saying,” How could any

ordinary mortal girl be more beautiful than a goddess?” She stormed off to find her son,

Eros, what is now known as a “Cupid.” Aphrodite found Eros and told him,” Eros, I want

you to make that wretched girl Psyche fall in love, preferably with a hideous monster.”

Eros went off at once, he enjoyed making the most unlikely people fall in love, even the

gods. After a while, he found Psyche asleep on a grassy slope. He pulled an arrow from

his quiver, but stumbled on a rock. The arroyo plunged into his leg, and he fell deeply in

love with Psyche. When Aphrodite finds out, she is furious. She punishes her in many

ways throughout the story, until Eros goes to Zeus, the king of the gods, and pleads him

to make Psyche immortal, so they can be married. He agrees, and they live together

forever. What the Cupid Stands for Now

Nowadays, the Cupid stand for love, and, more specifically, Valentines. He is

normally shown as a baby only wearing underwear carrying a bow and arrow. He is the

mascot in valentines, since he represents true love. 

28 days of February  ———————————  Why does February have only 28 Days? 

By Manasvi K.  

It’s the Romans’ fault. Our modern calendar is loosely based on their old, confusing one.

Though records on the Roman calendar are sparse and sketchy, legend has it that

Romulus, the first king of Rome, devised a 10-month lunar calendar that began at the

spring equinox in March and ended with December. It is unclear whether there were any

official months between December and March, but it’s likely they were left off because

the wintertime wasn’t important for the harvest. The second king of Rome, Numa

Pompilius, decided to make the calendar more accurate by syncing it up with the actual

lunar year—which is about 354 days long.

Numa tacked on two months—January and February—after December to account for

the new days. The new months each had 28 days. But that didn’t sit well with Numa

because even numbers were considered bad luck at the time. So, he added a day on to

January, giving the year an odd-numbered 355 days. No one knows why February was

left with 28 and remained an unlucky month. It may be related to the fact that Romans

honored the dead and performed rites of purification in February. (The word februare

means “to purify” in the dialect of the ancient Sabine tribe.) The 355-day calendar

couldn’t stay in sync with the seasons because it didn’t account for the amount of time it

took for the Earth to orbit the sun.

So, an extra “intercalary” month of 27 days was inserted after February 23 every couple

of years or so to even things out. The pontiffs who were in charge of calendar upkeep

didn’t always add the extra month on schedule. (Some officials took advantage of the

system to extend their time in office, for example.) In around 45 B.C., Julius Caesar

commissioned an expert to put aside the lunar origins of the Roman calendar and make

it sun-based, like the Egyptian one.

Caesar added 10 days to the calendar year and an extra day in February every four years.

(The leap-year day was inserted after the 23rd, the same time as the old intercalary

month.) Now, the year averaged out to 365.25 days, very close to the actual average

length of a year: 365.2425 days (and even that varies).

Some have speculated that Caesar added a day to February when he reformed the

calendar—making it 29 days long. The story goes that when the Senate renamed the

month of Sextilis to honor the emperor Augustus, that day was subtracted from

February and added to August in order to make it equal in number to July—the month

named for Caesar. But this theory is now believed to be bunk; it’s likely that Julius never

even added a day to February.

Interesting Animal Facts

“DOGO Media, Inc.” DOGO News - Kids News Articles! Kids Current

Events; plus Kids News on Science, Sports, and More! - Page 2, 12

Mar. 2019, www.dogonews.com/page/2.

Advice

Opportunity’s Death

In 2003, 2 rovers were sent to Mars by NASA, Spirit and Opportunity. Whilst

Spirit is still running, for the past five months Opportunity has been giving us complete

radio silence. Last June was one of the most recent times we heard of Opportunity. It

sent back a photo of it’s robotic arm working in Perseverance Valley, a week before it

was lost. A giant storm wrapped up the planet and covered the rover’s solar panels,

leaving the engine struggling on it’s own. Since we had lost connection with the rover,

NASA sent out another. When we finally heard from Opportunity it sent back a data

dump and six words, “batter is low, it’s getting dark,” before we lost it completely.

Sources:

Dunbar, Brian. “2003 Mars Rover.” NASA, NASA,

www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/F_2003_Mars_Rover.html.

Corum, Jonathan. “NASA's Opportunity Rover Dies on Mars.” The New York Times, The

New York Times, 13 Feb. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/13/science/opportunity-rover-mars-map.html  

Comics ——————————— 

    

  

 

         

 

  

             

Football  

NFL Playoffs By Brady D

Divisional

Eagles v Saints In this game the Saints won the game, 20-14. Nick foles had a decent game with 201 yards, 1 TD and 2 INT. He threw his TD to Jordan Matthews. Nick foles also ran for a TD. Drew Brees had a good game with 301 yards, 2 TD, and 1 INT. Drew Brees threw his TDs to Michael Thomas and Keith Kirkwood.

Rams v Cowboys The Rams beat the Cowboys, 30-22 in a hard fought game. Dak Prescott had a good game with 1 rushing TD, 1 passing TD, and 266 yards. He threw his only TD to Amari Cooper. Jared Goff had a horrible game with 186 yards and 0 TDs. They got their points from C. J. Anderson and Todd Gurley. C. J. Anderson had 123 yards and 2 TDs and Todd Gurley had 115 yards and 1 TD.

Chargers v Patriots The Patriots beat the Chargers this weekend, 41-28. Tom Brady had a great game with 343 yards, and 1 TD. He threw his TD to Phillip Dorsett. Sony michel had 129 yards with 3 TDs. Rex Burkhead also had a rushing TD. Philip Rivers had an amazing game with 331 yards with 3 TDs and 1 INT. He threw his TDs to Keenan Allen, Antonio Gates, and Virgil Green. Melvin Gordon also had 1 rushing TD.

Colts v Chiefs The colts led to the 12-4 Chiefs, 31-13. Andrew luck had a decent game with 203 yards with 1 TD. He threw his only TD to T. Y. Hilton. Patrick Mahomes II had 278 yards with 1 rushing TD. Damien Williams, Tyreek Hill, and Darrel Williams also each had rushing TDs.

Championship And

Patriots v Chiefs On Sunday, the Patriots beat the Chiefs in a high scoring game 37-31. Tom Brady had a pretty good game with 348 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs. His only TD was to Phillip Dorsett. Sony Michel had 2 rushing TDs and Rex Burkhead also had a TD. Patrick Mahomes had an great game with 295 yards, 3 TDs, and 0 INTs. Two of his TDs went to Damien Williams and the other one went to Travis Kelce. Damien Williams also had a rushing TD.

Rams v Saints On Sunday, the Rams beat the Saints in OT, 26-23. Jared Goff had a decent game with 297 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. He threw in single TD to Tyler Higbee. Todd Gurley also had a rushing TD. Drew Brees had 2 TDs and 1 INT. He threw his TDs to Garrett Griffin and Taysom Hill.

SUPERBOWL

Rams v Patriots In arguably the most boring Super Bowl ever, the Patriots beat the Rams 13-3. Tom Brady didn’t have that great of a game with 262 yards and 1 INT. Julian Edelman, the winner of the Super Bowl MVP, had an amazing performance with a huge 141 receiving yards. Sony Michel had the only TD for the Patriots. He had 94 yards and a single TD. Jared Goff also had a bad game with 229 yards and an INT. Nobody on the Rams scored a TD but the punter had the longest punt in Super Bowl by 1 yard.

 

Would You Rather?  (Valentines Day Theme) 

By: Sanjita N, Ritika S, Lahari A  1. Receive a pug for Valentine’s Day?  

 OR 

Receive how many you want of your favorite candies?  

2. Hang out with your bestie on Valentine’s Day and eat bunch of candies?  

 

OR Hang out with your boyfriend/girlfriend on Valentine’s Day and eat bunch of candies? 

   

3. Have your crush ask you out? 

 

Or Have your ex boyfriend/girlfriend that you still like ask you out?   

  

4. Have a box full of chocolates?  

 

OR  

Have a box full of candy? 

 5. Wear pink on Valentine’s Day?  

 OR 

Wear red on Valentine’s Day?