Original article (in Serbian) was published on 09/12/2021
A website Srbijadanas.com published a “shocking video which is claimed to show the Mother of God on the Holy Mountain”. The video was taken from a Facebook profile and showed a human-like shadow in the fog at the top of the mountain. However, the video was not made on the Holy Mountain, but probably somewhere in Russia, and there is nothing supernatural in the scene – it is an atmospheric phenomenon called “Brocken spectre” (“Brocken ghost”) when the shadow of the observer is outlined in fog or cloud. Sometimes a circular rainbow resembling a halo can be seen behind the shadow, so the whole scene looks “wonderful”.
On December 5, Facebook user Sasa Mratic shared a video on his profile with the inscription “HOLY MOUNTAIN, AN AMAZING SCENE RECORDED AGAIN. GLORY TO GOD”, which has been seen by almost half a million people so far. More than 6,000 comments were left under the video, and the largest number of them is “Amen”. Some wrote prayers, believing that the video shows nothing less than God, while some claim that it is the Mother of God.
Instead of checking this video, the editorial staff of the website Srbijadanas.com continued to spread superstition.
“SHOCKING VIDEO FROM THE HOLY MOUNTAIN! Sasa filmed it with a phone, and people claim: It is the Mother of God!”, is the title of the text published on December 8.
“Around the figure that the Orthodox believe to be the Mother of God, light shines in the right circle, and as the video progresses, it becomes increasingly clear. You can also see her movements, which reminded many of incense”, the website states.
However, the video was not made on the Holy Mountain, nor does it contain anything supernatural.
Raskrikavanje found the same video on the Telegram channel “Novosti Gornogo”, an account that shares information from the Altai Republic in the south of the Russian Federation. The description of the recording, which was shared on the channel on November 19, states that it was recorded in the Altai region of Kosh-Agach and that “people saw similar phenomena before serious earthquakes in the country”.
The same video can be found on the YouTube channel РЕАЛЬНАЯ ИНФА, where it was also shared on November 19 this year.
However, perhaps more important than where and when the recording took place is the following question – is there really something supernatural about it?
The answer is no. It is an interesting, but not unknown atmospheric phenomenon called “Brocken spectre”. It is also translated as “Brocken ghost”.
This phenomenon can also be called a mirage since it is an optical illusion. It occurs when the sun is low behind an observer standing at a height, such as a mountain peak, and its shadow falls on the surface of fog or clouds in front of it. In such cases, the shadow looks enormously enlarged, as explained in the Encyclopedia Britannica, and often a circular rainbow resembling a colorful halo spreads around it, thanks to the refraction of sunlight on water droplets in the cloud.
The phenomenon is named after the peak of Brocken in Germany, where it was first observed and where it can often be seen, given that the mountain is often surrounded by fog.