Long ago, the people of Ireland shared a common pious belief with many countries in Europe: when the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, it dances with joy that the Saviour has risen.

Customarily, families would get up before dawn and make their way to a hill top or other elevated location. Most likely it would have been a place where there was a special holy well. There, they would wait to see the sun do a jig, as it rose above the rim of the earth. For those not wishing to risk damaging their eyesight by looking directly into the brightness, they would look at its reflection in a tub of water. Of course, someone would craftily agitate the vessel and the miracle would be manifest!

The custom of seeing the Sun dance was more widespread than just Ireland. In the Middle Ages it was believed that the Sun made three cheerful jumps in honour of Christ’s Resurrection. All over Europe people would gather in open plains or on the crests of hills to watch the spectacle of sunrise on Easter Day. The moment of daybreak was marked by the shooting of cannon and the ringing of bells. Bands and choirs used to greet the rising sun as a symbol of the Risen Christ with Easter hymns and alleluia songs. This morning salute is still performed in the Alpine regions of Austria.

In his monumental work The Carmina Gadelica, a collection of prayers, poems and incantations gathered in the Hebrides, Alexander Carmichael includes this classic description given to him by Barbara Macphie, who saw the sun dance just once at Dreimsdale. She tells of climbing the highest hill on Easter morn and seeing the sun dancing in delight:

“The glorious gold-bright sun was rising on the crests of the great hills, and it was changing colour—green, purple, red, blood-red, intense white, and gold-white, like the glory of the God of the elements to the children of men. It was dancing up and down in exultation at the joyous resurrection of the beloved Saviour of victory.

To be thus privileged, a person must ascend to the top of the highest hill before sunrise, and believe that the God who makes the small blade of grass to grow is the same God who makes the large, massive sun to move.”