Agosto y septiembre no duran siempre
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Agosto y septiembre no duran siempre (August and September don’t last forever)

As you know, until relatively recently, the Spanish economy was basically agricultural. So, logically, idioms about the harvest season serve as metaphor to teach us about abundance. The following idiom does just that: Agosto y septiembre no duran siempre (or translated literally: August and September don’t last forever).

What does the saying mean? Well, let’s think like humble famers… August and September are months of abundance; months of harvest and optimism. Have you ever noticed how the majority of town festivals in Spain are in August?

However, after the abundant harvest months come the barren months of winter. Winter months were a time when the only option was to use what had been harvested in the summer, and when it was necessary to be careful not to use up stocks all at once or in a few weeks.

See the meaning of the idiom? Good times are reason to be happy, but we have to be realistic and admit that they won’t last forever. We should be cautious and think about the future; in a nutshell, we shouldn’t be overly optimistic.

This is a good lesson to apply to our everyday lives, even though the connections we may have with the country and with farming go only as far as the screen saver our computers came with by default.

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