Ample evidence for food deposits, cooking gear and even possible hearths is found in early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. Vessels and bones may represent symbolic aspects of the deceased person's status, which was part of the mortuary display, but in some cases these are not found on the body, but in the backfill of the grave. These may be the remains of feasting, which took place either prior to the funeral, or even in the graveyard itself. Feasting may have been part of a transition ritual, in which the dead provided for the living (by bequeathing them succession and status) and the living took leave of the dead by assuming their new role in the group or family. How often such feasting took place is unclear, since only sporadic indications are found from cemeteries. It is possible that this was a regular part of Anglo-Saxon funeral rites, and it is even conceivable that some form of posthumous commemorative rite was practised as well.

However, our clearest indication for food in rituals of the pagan Anglo-Saxons is not related to funerary feasting. In his work on the reckoning of time De Temporibus Annis, Bede compares the Roman months to the native calendar. November, he explains, is blodmonað, ‘blood month’, in English since ‘Blodmonath mensis immolationum quod in eo pecora quae occisuri erant diis suis voverent. Gratias tibi, bone Iesu, qui nos ab his vanis avertens tibi sacrificia laudis offere donasti.’ How these sacrifices have been celebrated before is left to the imagination. At another point Bede indicates that animal sacrifices were a habitual part of feasting, but gives no more information on the occasion or purpose of such events. His information is included in a letter by Pope Gregory II with advice for Bishop Mellitus. The pope advises that it is better to allow some rituals if they are done in the name of Christ than to alienate the newly converted population: