St. Martin's Day time of the year) and have Jesus bringing the end of it, thus making the "summer" a gift from God. In Spain, St. Martin's Day is the traditional day for slaughtering fattened pigs for the winter. This tradition has given way to the popular saying ""A cada cerdo le llega su San Martín"", which translates as "Every pig gets its St Martin." The phrase is used to indicate that wrongdoers eventually get their comeuppance. In Saint Martin, November 11 is commemorated as the date when Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus, on his second journey into Antillean waters, landed on the island,
St. Martin's Day this saint, including San Martin on the outskirts of St. Paul's Bay, and Ġebel San Martin outside of Żejtun. The day is celebrated on the evening of the 11th of November (the day Saint Martin died), where he is known as Sint-Maarten. As soon it gets dark, children up to the age of 11 or 12 (primary school age) go door to door with hand-crafted lanterns made of hollowed-out sugar beet or, more recently, paper, singing songs such as "Sinte Sinte Maarten," hoping to receive candy in return, similar to Halloween. In the past, poor people would visit farms on