diff -r 49294e55311f Lib/calendar.py
--- a/Lib/calendar.py	Sat Jan 26 18:08:22 2013 -0800
+++ b/Lib/calendar.py	Sun Jan 27 12:00:42 2013 +0200
@@ -492,6 +492,7 @@
     def __enter__(self):
         self.oldlocale = _locale.getlocale(_locale.LC_TIME)
         _locale.setlocale(_locale.LC_TIME, self.locale)
+        return _locale.getlocale(_locale.LC_TIME)[1]
 
     def __exit__(self, *args):
         _locale.setlocale(_locale.LC_TIME, self.oldlocale)
diff -r 49294e55311f Lib/test/test_calendar.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_calendar.py	Sat Jan 26 18:08:22 2013 -0800
+++ b/Lib/test/test_calendar.py	Sun Jan 27 12:00:42 2013 +0200
@@ -255,11 +255,23 @@
         # (it is still not thread-safe though)
         old_october = calendar.TextCalendar().formatmonthname(2010, 10, 10)
         try:
-            calendar.LocaleTextCalendar(locale='').formatmonthname(2010, 10, 10)
+            cal = calendar.LocaleTextCalendar(locale='')
+            local_weekday = cal.formatweekday(1, 10)
+            local_month = cal.formatmonthname(2010, 10, 10)
         except locale.Error:
             # cannot set the system default locale -- skip rest of test
-            return
-        calendar.LocaleHTMLCalendar(locale='').formatmonthname(2010, 10)
+            raise unittest.SkipTest('cannot set the system default locale')
+        # should be encodable
+        local_weekday.encode('utf-8')
+        local_month.encode('utf-8')
+        self.assertEqual(len(local_weekday), 10)
+        self.assertGreaterEqual(len(local_month), 10)
+        cal = calendar.LocaleHTMLCalendar(locale='')
+        local_weekday = cal.formatweekday(1)
+        local_month = cal.formatmonthname(2010, 10)
+        # should be encodable
+        local_weekday.encode('utf-8')
+        local_month.encode('utf-8')
         new_october = calendar.TextCalendar().formatmonthname(2010, 10, 10)
         self.assertEqual(old_october, new_october)