Pokemon-go – Why do Pokemon Go gyms “sparkle” sometimes (like right now)

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Now is Nov. 16 at 8-pm EST. All gyms are "sparkling". And, in these gyms, none of the icons for the Pokemon that occupy the gym are being shown. What does this mean? Why is it happening?

I'm gonna investigate empirically and go attack one. But, can someone explain this phenomenon?

notes: There is a very bright full moon low in the eastern sky.

here is a photo of what these gyms looked like. When in motion they seem to sparkle to me. As a static photo, not so much sparkle:
enter image description here

In the next photo, notice that the circles near me, that indicate a pokemon exists, do not have a pokemon at the center. This seems to prove the pokemon icons were just not being loaded.
enter image description here

Best Answer

After thinking about your question for a bit, I realized that this has happened to me before as well. This is a bug related to the game loading things.

The giveaway in your question was this:

And, in these gyms, none of the icons for the Pokemon that occupy the gym are being shown.

Whenever Pokémon sprites don't display where they're supposed to, it's definitely a bug. It's certainly not an event, as it has happened multiple times to me (plus there's not really any special holiday right now).

Try force closing and reopening your app, then waiting a few minutes and see if that doesn't make the Pokémon reappear in the gym. That's what always fixes it for me.