Knock

An alleged clairvoyant named Joe Coleman (no relation, I presume, to the artist) has said that the Virgin Mary will make a return appearance in Knock, Ireland on October 31 -- Halloween. Previously, she was predicted to appear on October 11. Although she proved a no-show on that occasion, the crowd did allegedly witness strange solar phenomena, as documented in this video.

Skeptical cur that I am, I see nothing supernatural in that video. However, I do see many people trying to look directly into the sun, a dangerous practice. Note to videographers: Next time you attend such an event, you may want to point the camera at a stationary object on the ground. The shadows will tell you whether the sun is in motion -- which, I can predict with some confidence, it won't be.

Knock was, of course, the site of a famous non-subjective apparition on August 21, 1879. On that proverbially dark and stormy night, more than a dozen people stood in the rain to witness a religious tableau -- an arrangement of glowing, non-moving two-dimensional figures -- "projected" on an exterior church wall. It has been suggested that some hidden prankster used a magic lantern (an early-day slide projector) to achieve this effect, although those witnesses who came close to the wall did not notice any tell-tale shadows.