Solmónath sounds like „sun", but means something quite different: Bede glosses it as the „month of cakes" offered to the gods – a rite of offering and blessing at the edge of early spring.
Name & Meaning
The common error that Solmónath is a „sun-month" misreads Bede. He writes expressly that it is the mensis placentarum, the month of cakes offered in it to the gods. German February was Hornung – the shortest, „hornless" month, when some game sheds its antlers.
Work & Custom
Winter still lies heavy, yet the work makes ready: the plough is set right, the seed-corn sorted, fences and gear mended. The offering-cakes point to a rite of fertility and blessing for the coming sowing – one asks for a good year before the first grain goes into the earth.
Bede’s Testimony
Solmónath can be called „month of cakes", which they offered in it to their gods.
— Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15.
Sources
Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15 (mensis placentarum); Faith Wallis (transl.), 1999. Myth-check: Solmónath is not a „sun-month".