wednesday is derived from "wodensday"; wherein "woden" is the anglo-saxon version of "odin". so basically wednesday is, in a way, odin. or something like that.

I feel the need to point out that the days of our week come mostly from scandinavian mythology, but our months seem to come much from roman emperors. The only one I can remember off the top of my head is August. I'm pretty sure October is not for Octavius. Oh, and Tyr is the correct spelling. He was, ummm, god of justice, wasn't he?

In old slavic his name was pronounced Wotan reffering to Wotansday...

Something from Italy and Roman Mythology.
Our weekdays as well are accorded to the gods' names, except for Sunday (Domenica) which has become the Day of The Lord instead of the Sun.

(Monday) Lunedì = Day of the Moon
(Tuesday) Martedì = Day of Mars
(Wednesday) Mercoledì = Day of Mercury (Ermes - that corresponds to Odino, even id the father of the gods in Roman Mythology is Jovis, Giove... but this is another story)
(Thursday) Giovedì = Day of Jovis
(Friday)Venerdì = Day of Venus
(Saturday)Sabato = Day of Saturn. (Ancient God of the sky. The one who devoured his own sons... have you ever seen Goya' grusome (and marvellous) picture?)
(Sunday)Domenica = Day of the Lord.

SATURNALIA were a kind of Roman Carnival, during winter in which everything was subverted and allowed. Many traditions formed our Christmas: the Mithraic one, the Yulelore, Saturnalia...

The Roman Calendar.Yes October is not for Octaviano!

In the origin the months were ten, because the calendar ruled on the activities in the fields and so it started with spring (march) and ended with the beginning of winter (december).

So you had: March, dedicated to Mars.
April, from the Latin APERIRE, that is to open, referred to the earth and to the flowering of nature ("April is the cruellest month" for T.S.Eliot)
May, dedicated to Maia, goddess of fertility... and something else (you have a Maya also in Hindu and Greek Mythology with another meaning, but it is not working here).
June, dedicated to Juno, the mother of gods.
July was primary Quintilius, the fifth month. It was consequently changed in Julius ande dedicated to Julius Caesar.
So August: it was Sextilis, the sixth month. Than dedicated to Augustus.
September,October, November and December with not so much fantasy were the seventh,eighth, nineth and tenth month!.

Later were added January and February.
January is the most wonderful: it is inspired by Janus, the God with two faces, one that casts a look to the past year, the other one directed to the new one.
February is the month for the purification of the earth, before nature can blossom again:from februus, to purify.

That's it, hope it is of some interest!

For anyone further interested in this topic, I stumbled upon this site while preparing a presentation on the Old English calendar for university:
Anglo-Saxon time-keeping
And for any Tolkien fans out there: Tolkien "borrowed" the Anglo-Saxon (or Old English) names of the months for his shire-calendar (check the appendices to LOTR). Here are their original names: OECalendar
It also mentiones the goddess Eostre, btw.

quote:

Tuesday = Tisdag = Day of Tyr (or however you spell it in English. The god who sacrificed his hand to the Fenris wolf)

Tyr didn't actually intentionally sacrifice his hand to the Fenrir wolf. Tyr was a little like Thor, all muscle and no brain; and he was trying to show his bravery and trust towards the beast by placing his right hand into its mouth.

Silly boy