Miracle of the Dancing Sun: Religious Marvel Witnessed by 70,000 People Might Actually Be an Astronomical Event

In 1917, thousands of people gathered in the village of Fatima in Portugal, where they allegedly saw the Sun spinning in the sky, changing its size and color for about 10 minutes.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ Erik Axdahl)

The Lady of Fatima

On May 13, 1917, three children claimed to have encountered the Virgin Mary on their way home from tending a flock of sheep. The peasant children were known by Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, ages 10, 9, and 7, respectively. Speaking only to Lucia, Mary told the children that she would appear to them again on the thirteenth day of the next six months.

The children told their parents and others about their experiences. In the weeks and months that followed, more and more people made pilgrimages to Fatima.

Mary's final appearance on October 13 became the most famous. It was reported that an estimated 70,000 people gathered at the site while waiting for the Virgin's final visit. The figure appeared only to the children, urging repentance and building a chapel at the site.

After predicting an end to World War I and giving the peasant children undisclosed visions, Mary lifted her hands to the sky. As the people gazed upward, they saw a silvery disc emerging from behind the clouds, a phenomenon known as a 'sun miracle.' The entire event took about 10 minutes and became known as the Miracle of the Sun.

However, not everyone witnessed the same thing. Some claimed they saw the sun dancing around the heavens, while others said it got closer to Earth in a zigzag motion. Some reported seeing brilliant colors spinning out of the sun in a pinwheel pattern. Thousands of others also reported that they did not see anything unusual.

Could the Dancing Sun Be a Meteorological Event?

Thousands of reporters and witnesses saw the 'dancing sun,' but the sun did not dance in the sky. Experts know this because everyone on Earth is under the same Sun. This means that if the closest star to us suddenly makes strange movements, other people from various parts of the world would indeed have reported the same. For sure, such an event is not something that anyone else could have overlooked.

According to American author Joe Nickell, the 70,000 people gathered in Fatima might have experienced something else. In his book Looking for a Miracle, Nickell suggested that the crowd witnessed a sundog, an atmospheric optical phenomenon in which colored spots of light are formed due to the refraction of light through ice crystals.

Since the sundogs are stationary, the "sun dance" did not happen in the skies above them. Instead, it might have appeared in the minds and perceptions of the pilgrims. This could be psychological since the people were expecting and even praying for signs from God.

The fact that different people observed different things or nothing at all, is also a strong indication of a psychological explanation. No one suggests that the pilgrims who reported seeing the Miracle of the Sun are lying or hoaxing. Instead, they likely experienced what they claimed to, although such an experience occurred primarily in their minds.

It is also likely that an element of mild mass hysteria was involved. In this phenomenon, one person observes something and gets excited about it. As a result, other people feed off it and begin seeing similar things themselves.