The late
John Tvedtnes, in his 2003
Book of Mormon Archaeological Foundation presentation, discussed Samuel the
Lamanite's prophecy of a night without darkness:
A Night without
Darkness
Samuel the Lamanite
prophesied that there would be a night without darkness at the time of Christ's
birth. There are several possibilities of how that took place. I am not
trying to say that there is no miraculous nature involved here, but the Lord
uses natural means to accomplish things. There are, for example, glowing night
fogs that have been observed in various places. The cause is unknown although
it is thought that it might be electrical in nature. The phenomenon was first
described in 1982 by meteorologist William R. Corliss. He discovered that
there were a number of such instances that had occurred in the past. One was
a luminous fog that extended from Africa to Sweden and
throughout North and South America. That is a gigantic fog, and it glowed in
the dark. It also appeared in a few other places, for
example, in 1783, in the Alps as well as in valleys nearby. A similar fog was
observed in Western Europe in August 1821. An 1831 fog was almost world-wide.
Corliss concludes that “nights were so bright that the smallest print could be
read at midnight.” In 1890, the engineer and passengers aboard a Houston,
Texas, railroad train reported a glowing arch having the appearance of a mist
in the moonless night, low enough in the atmosphere that the train actually
passed through it or beneath it and came out the other side. Beneath the mist
everything was pale like under a full moon (the moon was not out that
particular night). A similar occurrence was reported by another train on the
West Meridian Railroad in Pennsylvania on 2 May 1919. This was transparent but
bright enough to block out any of the stars that were behind it.
There is also
something that is called “earthquake luminosity.” For example, on 9
December 1731, following an earthquake in Florence, Italy, luminous clouds
appeared over England. Several days prior to an earthquake that hit England on
2 March 1750, residents of London reported seeing reddish bows in the air that
took the same direction as the shock wave when it finally did come. On 23 August
1750, there was another aurora accompanied by a quake at Spalding,
England. Then, a month later in September, at Northampton, there was
another small earthquake (these were probably all related). A Dr. Doddridge
reported a fireball that morning, a red sky the following night, and then
following that “the finest aurora I've ever seen.” Similar things have happened
in places like France and South America. In fact, it is very common in South
America where it is called the “Andes glow.” Earthquakes are also much more
frequent in the Andes than they are in Europe, and so during times preceding
and during earthquakes this glow appears, and sometimes follows the mountain
ridges for as much as 300 miles in length.
In 1908 there was a
period of time during which there were some very, very bright skies. That was
the year when an object burned up in the atmosphere and exploded over the
Tunguska region of Siberia. There have been various theories put forth as to
what it was, but most scientists now believe it was a comet or asteroid.
The topic has been seriously studied since 1937. Though most Europeans did not
know about this explosion over Siberia until after the word got back into
Russia, then spread to other parts of Europe, the nights were very bright after
this explosion. Later, meteorologists looking at this thought this was probably
reflected sunlight, but, sometimes it lasted all night long, covering most of
northern Europe, parts of Asia and North America. The sky glowed with red and
yellow hues even when it was overcast, so it was bright enough to shine through
the clouds. It also affected the weather in some places in the northern
hemisphere. In the British Isles the northeast sky was tinted red, and people
in Scotland reported that in rooms facing north objects cast shadows at night.
In London it was possible to read the small print in the London Times at
midnight. On 1 July 1908 a reader wrote to the Times, “A strange light in the
sky that was seen last night by my sister and myself appeared about midnight.
The sky for some distance above the light appeared to be as blue on the horizon
as in the daytime, with bands of light cloud of a pinkish color floating across
it at intervals. Only the brightest stars could be seen in any part of the sky
although this was an almost cloudless night. It was possible to read the large
print indoors at 1:30 a.m. The room was quite as light as if it had been day.”
Photographs were taken by this natural light at 1:00 a.m. at Stockholm, Sweden,
and also at Novorzhev, Russia, and they look like a bright summer afternoon (I
have actually seen these photos). One Russian man reported that the brightness
woke him up at 1:15 in the morning and he spent half the night reading by this
light. He said that at 1:45 a.m. the whole sky was a delicate salmon-pink. A
British artist in Chelsea painted a series of pastels based of the glowing
night sky. So, you can see that it is certainly possible, even in a purely
naturalistic view, that there could be a night without darkness at the time of
Christ's birth, as Samuel the Lamanite had prophesied and that actually took
place.
Another recorded
event mirroring the examples Tvedtnes gives, and, by extension, Samuel's
prophecies, comes from the 26 January 1938 issue of the New York Times in a
story with the headline, "Aurora Borealis Startles Europe; People Flee in
Fear, all Firemen":
Special Cable to The New York Times.
London, Jan. 25.--The most brilliant display
of an aurora borealis in fifty years held Britons spellbound over a wide area
of the country tonight. From 6:30 to 8:30 P.M. the people of London watched two
magnificent arcs rising in the east and west, from which radiated pulsating
beams like searchlights in dark red, greenish blue and purple.
During this period all transatlantic radio
communication was interrupted, and it was not until 11:30 A.M. that normal
service was resumed. From an airplane the display looked lke "a shimmering
curtain of fire." A big spot had been noted on the sun during the weekend
and some scientists anticipated that there would be an electrical disturbance
of this kind.
One of the novel features of tonight's
display was the vivid red glow. Londoners' last view of an aurora borealis was
one night during a Zeppelin raid when it added terror to the dropping bombs.
Police stations, fire brigades and newspaper
offices all over the country were inundated by calls tonight asking,
"Where is the fire?" The phenomenon was seen as far south as Vienna
and in Holland crowds awaiting the birth of the Princess Juliana's baby cheered
it as a lucky omen.
The report
then reports on various accounts of it from various places:
Londoners Thought City Afire
By The Associated Press.
LONDON, Jan. 25.--The aurora borealis, rarely
seen in Southern or Western Europe, spread fear in parts of Portugal and Lower
Austria tonight, while thousands of Britons were brought running into the
streets in wonderment. The ruddy glow led many to think half of the city was
ablaze. The Windsor Fire Department was called out in the belief that Windsor
Castle was afire.
Superstitious folk of the Scottish lowlands
shook their heads and declared the northern lights always spelled an ill-omen
for Scotland.
The lights were clearly seen in Italy, Spain
and even Gibraltar. The glow, bathing snow-clad mountaintops in Austria and
Switzerland was a beautiful sight, but firemen turned out to chase non-existent
fires.
Portuguese villagers rushed in fright from
their homes, fearing the end of the world.
Short-wave radio connections between London
and New York were disrupted by the electrical disturbance.
France and Swiss Alarmed.
By The Associated Press.
GRENOBLE, France, Jan. 25.--A huge blood-red
beam of light which scientists said was an aurora borealis of exceptional
amplitude tied up telephone systems in parts of France tonight and spread
anxiety in numerous Swiss Alpine villages.
Emblazoned in the northern sky the light
brought thousands of telephone calls to Swiss and French authorities asking
whether it was a fire, war or the end of the world.
Scientists at the University of Grenoble said
that a similar aurora borealis had not been seen in Western Europe since 1709.
Bermuda Witnesses Phenomenon
Special Cable to The New York
Times.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, Jan. 25.--A brilliant
exhibition of an aurora borealis brought all Bermudians out of their homes at
6:15 o'clock tonight to witness the phenomenon seen here only on the rarest
occasions. The sky was brilliantly lightened with dark red streamers, flashing
like searchlights. Many persons thought the light was caused by a ship afire at
sea. Steamship agents took the precaution of checking with wireless stations to
learn if there had been any SOS calls. The display lasted about three-quarters
of an hour, the lights passing gradually into the north. It has been many years
since such a phenomenon was witnessed here.
Such an
event adds further plausibility of Samuel’s prophecy and the
fulfilment thereof in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 1.
One can read
the article itself at high resolution here, or the
full page of the newspaper (again, at high resolution) here.
