In Spain, normal days can turn otherworldly. Starting tomorrow, the country's regular drumbeat of fairs and festivals will be accompanied by improbable astrological luck: three solar eclipses over the Iberian Peninsula in the next 500 days, a very unusual event, according to Sandra Benitez Herrera of the European Space Agency. The first eclipse will hit at sunset, a coincidence occurring only about once a decade globally, astrophysicist Kelsey Johnson notes. Shadows will appear strange, and the Perseid meteor shower will peak against the new moon.

Eclipse chasers are flocking to small towns that will go completely dark. In A Coruña, the minute of total darkness ends at 8:29 p.m., just before a local football match. The city expects 20,000 visitors from cruise ships alone. In Briviesca, the eclipse overlaps with a patron-saint festival featuring a toro de fuego. Tarragona will showcase human-tower making. These local spectacles amplify the eclipse's awe.

The festivities risk overcrowding; Mallorca's government is not promoting the eclipse to avoid a surge. Still, Spain's government calls the Iberian Peninsula "the only populated place" to fully enjoy this eclipse. The next one, in 2027, is already billed as "the Eclipse of the Century" for its six minutes of totality.