13th May - A religious phenomenon

Today is the 13th May. It's the 92nd anniversary of the day that three young shepards (really young. Children.) said they saw the Virgin Mary in Fátima, a city here in Portugal.

Every year there's a large torch-light procession in honor of the Virgin Mary, which is organised in the evening, and it's pretty impressive. The pilgrims gather in the Cova, on a huge space in which is built a little chapel where the Virgin is believed to have appeared to the children.

Fátima attracts a large number of Catholics, and every year pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the city with crowds that approach one million on May 13 and October 13, the significant dates of Fátima apparitions.

May 13th was when the children first saw the Virgin Mary. The Miracle of the Sun is an alleged miraculous event witnessed by as many as 100,000 people on the 13th October 1917 in the Cova da Iria fields near Fátima, Portugal. Those in attendance had assembled to observe what the Portuguese newspapers had been ridiculing for months as the absurd claim of the three shepherd children that a miracle was going to occur at high-noon in that same place, at that same time.

According to many witness statements, after a downfall of rain, the dark clouds broke and the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disk in the sky. It was said to be significantly less bright than normal, and cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the shadows on the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, frightening some of those present who thought it meant the end of the world. Some witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became "suddenly and completely dry."

When my mom was ten years old (who, incidentally, is called Fátima), she went to Fátima and spoke to people who said they saw this same Miracle.

I don't know what to make of this everytime this day or October 13th arrives. When it comes to religion, I prefer not to express my opinion, because I'm not certain of anything, just like everyone else in the world.

There are lots of movies about this true story, I recommend this movie if you're interested (it's in Portuguese, but I'm sure there are one or two in English).

I just wanted to share this little fact about today.

-Lo