Blótmónath is the only one of the old months with an expressly heathen, bloody name: the „month of immolations". Before winter the beasts are slaughtered – and consecrated to the gods.
Name & Meaning
Bede writes that Blótmónath is the „month of immolations", because in it the cattle to be slaughtered were consecrated to the gods. The need to slaughter and the act of offering fell together. The German Nebelung/wind-moon names the weather; the popular Schlachtmonat, the work.
Work & Custom
What cannot be fed through winter is now slaughtered – the meat salted, smoked, made into sausage. In the picture-calendars November is the classic slaughter-month image (the pig at the trough, then under the knife). The name Blótmónath recalls that the same act was at once slaughter and consecration.
Bede’s Testimony
Blótmónath, „month of immolations", because in it the cattle to be slaughtered were consecrated to their gods.
— Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15.
Sources
Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15; „Labours of the Months" (November = pig slaughter/acorn mast).