Cultural: The tradition of seeing omens in the sky is part of the Mesoamerican culture, and heavenly omens were seen as predicting the arrival of the Spaniards. At least one of the recorded celestial omens bears an important parallel to Samuel’s prophecy:
“Ten years before the Spaniards arrived here, an omen of evil first appeared in the heavens. It was like a tongue of fire, like a flame, like the light of dawn. It looked as if it were showering [sparks], as if it stood piercing the heavens. It was wide at the base, it was pointed at the head. To the very midst of the sky, to the very heart of the heavens it stood reaching; to the very midpoint of the skies it stood stretched as it was seen. It was there to the east when it thus came forth at midnight; it looked as if day had dawned, day had broken. Later, the sun destroyed it when he arose. For a full year [the sign came forth].” (Bernardino de Sahagun. Florentine Codex. Tr, Arthur J.O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble. School of American Research and the University of Utah., 1975, Book 12, p. 2-3).
It is fairly certain that this reference in the Florentine Codex is to a comet, and does not precisely fit the description of Samuel. The two things that are parallel, however, is the understanding that signs in the heavens could be omens of future events, and the most interesting parallel is that of the brightness of the omen at night. This one does not last the whole night, but nevertheless the description of being like the dawn is suggestive that the native mind did see light in these situations that could be ascribed to a light similar to the sun’s at a time when the sun was not shining.