November – ‘the month of immolations’

The 9th Month of the Roman Calendar 9 being ‘novem’. Now it’s the 11th because of reorganisation of the Roman Calender.

In Welsh it is ‘Tachwedd’ which means the month of slaughtering. Blōtmōnaþ (Blotmonath) in Anglo -saxon – the month of blood. These reference the fact that this is the month when the surplus animals are slaughtered or as the historian, Venerable Bede has it, ‘the month of immolations’.

The image shows some of the aspects of November – star signs Scorpio and Sagittarius, Pigs are fattening up on the acorns in the forest and then being fattened, slaughtered, smoked or dried to preserve them through the hard winter. The text of the Kalendar gives a good summary of what early modern life in November was like. In summary, the day when the ‘poore die through want of Charitie’.