Heathens Were More Observant Than Romans

The linkable Online English Etymology entry for the word "April" recites:

April 

fourth month, c.1300, aueril, from Old French avril (11c.), from Latin (mensis) Aprilis, second month of the ancient Roman calendar, of uncertain origin, perhaps based on Apru, an Etruscan borrowing of Greek Aphrodite. Or perhaps *ap(e)rilis "the following, the next," from its place as the second month of the old Roman calendar, from Proto-Italic *ap(e)ro-, from PIE *apo- "away, off" (see apo-; compare Sanskrit aparah "second," Gothic afar "after"). With month-name suffix -ilis as in Quintilis, Sextilis (the old names of July and August). In English in Latin form from mid-12c. Replaced Old English Eastermonað, which was named for a fertility goddess (see Easter). Re-spelled in Middle English on Latin model (apprile first attested late 14c.).

I learned two things: First, that that online dictionary surpasses my dead tree OED of Etymology which only recites the "fourth month of the year" part and a couple of Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish cognates. Second, I learned the Latin words Quintilis and Sextilis for July and August -- those dead words make sense in view of September and October. Damn those Romans and their renaming of months after Caesars! Of course, September is our ninth month and the Roman's seventh month. The two-month shift makes sense if March is the first month of the year.

My favorite Anglo-Saxon website expounds on the Anglo-Saxon word for April, Eastermonað:

For the heathen Anglo-Saxons, April corresponded with the lunar month of Eostermonað. Bede writes that this month was named after a goddess Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated at this time. He goes on to say that "Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance". 'Paschal' is an archaic English form of the Hebrew word, pesah, meaning 'Passover'. Most European languages still use a form of this word to mean Easter (e.g. French Pâques, Danish Paaske, Scottish Gaelic Cáisg). In contrast, the modern German word for Easter is Ostern, from the Old High German Ostara.* In Teutonic Mythology, Jacob Grimm writes that "This Ostara, like the Anglo-Saxon Eastre, must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the Christian teachers tolerated the name and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries." Eostra/Ostara may have started out as a local goddess who travelled to Britain from what is now Germany with a particular tribe, or a group of tribes such as the Saxons.

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*My German language Duden 7  gives a lovely history of the word Ostern, tying it to together with Easter, east, Austria, and Australia.