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,
Europe Day in particular has gone beyond celebrating just the day, since 1995 extending the observance to an entire "Europe Week" ("") centered on 9 May. In Poland, the , a Polish organisation advocating European integration established in 1991, first organised its Warsaw "" on Europe Day 1999, at the time advocating the accession of Poland to the EU. Observance of 9 May as "Europe Day" was reported "across Europe" as of 2008. The EU's choice of the date of foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community rather than that of the EU itself established a narrative in which Schuman's speech,