Yesterday was St Martin's day. This was significant to the population of England in times past more for the practise of slaughtering one of the family pigs.
Firstly this is when the pig would be at it's fattest after being fed on beech mast and bad fruit. Also the times of dearth are ahead and the family would not be able to feed too many mouths.
Every part of the pig would be used from it's blood to it's intestines. The meat would be salted down for winter consumption, the offal turned into sausages and the head into brawn.
There was not a mass slaughter of animals at this time of year just a reduction of livestock numbers to winter manageable numbers.
This would be carried out through the months of October through December. It was a practise that can be traced back to Saxon times.
December from a Medieval calendar
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