Why is it called February?

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The second month of the year, February, is associated today mostly with St Valentine and his blessing uopn lovers but the month is named after a much older Roman festival, Februalia, a festival of cleansing and ritual purification, which happened between the 13th and the 15th of the month, about the same time as St Valentine's day, in fact. Some people say that the word 'februa' is associated with the word 'fever', because the sweating which a fever produces is a sort of cleansing or purging. Is it coincidental that February is often a month when colds and flu take a hold? I remember, when I was little, my mother always used to have a huge spring cleaning when all the rugs and carpets were taken ouside and beaten to get the dust out, floors and walls were washed and all the nooks and crannies cleaned of the dust and dirt they had collected over the winter. Not so many people do this thorough cleaning these days, perhaps because we have less time and more efficient cleaning appliances to keep our homes dust-free.