Every dog has his day
"Every pig gets its San Martín" is a proverb that alludes to the fact that each one will receive the answer for the acts committed in due time. If someone has acted wrongly, sooner or later the time will come to pay the blame for him. San Martín is celebrated on November 11 in honor of Martín de Tours, a very important date in many Spanish towns, as it is when the matacía or pig slaughter takes place. In many regions, it is significant because it is the reference day for the end of the agricultural year and the beginning of the new agricultural year, the day on which the lease contracts are terminated; For this reason, the arrival of San Martín means the end of one cycle and the beginning of another, in this case, the slaughter of the pig for that year, although it does not necessarily coincide with that time (the sacrifice is delayed when the winds arrive cold that help to preserve the meat, already towards December).
The same saying, sometimes changing pork for other synonyms such as pig, pig, pig or pig, is used in Latin American countries such as Mexico, Argentina, or Panama. In Argentina, alternative explanations are given for the origin of the saying, on the one hand taking into account that Martín de Tours is also the patron saint of Buenos Aires, on the other making a possible allusion to General José de San Martín with the version "Every August comes his San Martín".
In Hispano-America it is used "A cada marrano le llega su Nochebuena / su december".
In France the same proverb is used: «À chaque porc vient la Saint Martin», while in Spanish and French as well as in German, English and Italian there are proverbs with the same meaning, but referred to foxes and furriers.
In Egyptian-Levantine dialectal Arabic, a similar proverb is used: "every dog has its day" |kul kalb byigi yawmuh| كُلّ كَلْب بِيجِي يُومُه.
The proverb appears in numerous literary works. For example, in the second part of Don Quixote de la Mancha, chapter 63, the knight finds the continuation of his story written by Avellaneda and exclaims "but his San Martín will come to him like every pig."