Submitted by Weather Girl on
Image by David Mark from Pixabay
Rainbows are a beautiful phenomenon that bear significance across different religions and cultures. Rainbows usually occur after a storm or rain shower, and they are the result of refracted sunlight hitting raindrops. This produces the optical appearance that is a rainbow. While the sun often shines after a rain shower, conditions are are not always perfect to produce the appearance of a rainbow. For this reason, rainbows are considered special across many religions and cultures.
Religious and Cultural Significance
Because of their rarity, rainbows hold significance in many religions and cultures. In Christianity, a rainbow was seen after the Great Flood was set upon the Earth by God to cleanse sin and evil from the world. It is believed that the appearance of a rainbow after a storm is a sign that God will not destroy the world again by flood. There is also mention of a rainbow in the book of Revelations which uses the rainbow as a sign of the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Throughout Native American culture, the meaning and significance of rainbows varies depending upon the tribe. Some tribes believed that rainbows were the bridge between the spiritual and human world. This is sometimes referred as the “Rainbow Bridge”. Other tribes believed that rainbows were a symbol of healing goddesses. The Cherokee Indians believed that rainbows were a representation of the hem of the Sun god’s coat. Mayan Indians held a similar belief to Christians in regards to rainbows as they believed that after their world was destroyed by fire rain the appearance of a rainbow meant that the gods were no longer angry.
There are some cultures/religions that believe the rainbow represents the elements or the directions of the Earth. In Islam, rainbows only consist of four colors-blue, green, red and yellow-which correspond with the four elements water, earth, fire and air. The Buddhists believed that the seven colors of the rainbow represent the seven continents of the Earth. The ancient Arabians attributed the appearance of a rainbow as a gift from the south wind.
In many cultures rainbows were a sign of luck or a gift from the gods. As many know, in Irish culture, a rainbow is synonymous with elusive pots of gold and leprechauns. Poland also shares the same belief with Ireland about the pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. However, in Polish culture the pots of gold are a gift from angels.
In many cultures, rainbows are a sign of pathways, messages or messengers. In Roman culture, rainbows were believed to be the pathway taken by Mercury the messenger god. In Norse tradition, rainbows became the pathway or bridge that only celebrated fallen warriors, royalty or gods could cross.
While many religions and cultures view rainbows positively, there are some instances were rainbows are seen as negative symbols. In many of these cultures rainbows were associated with dark spirits or demons. In both Honduras and Nicaragua, people believed that rainbows were a sign of the devil, and it if they looked at a rainbow a curse would be placed on them. In Amazonian culture, rainbows are associated with less desirable spirits that cause miscarriages and skin disorders.
Superstitious beliefs also surround the rainbow. One tribe in South America believed a rainbow oer the sea was a good sign, but when it appeared over land, it was the sign of an evil spirit looking for a victim. In Eastern Europe it was believed that an angel put gold at the ends of the rainbow, but only a nude man could find it. An old Romanian folktale claimed that the end of a rainbow stood in a river, anyone creeping in on hands and knees for a drink of the rainbow-touched water would be changed instantly to the opposite sex. A similar tale claimed that anyone passing beneath a rainbow’s arch would be changed into the opposite sex. - https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/nonpwdpubs/young_naturalist/earth_sciences/rainbows/index.phtml
You are right that in spite of its majestic beauty, the rainbow seems to represent two things at once. The context in which it is introduced to us in the Torah is a very negative one. God tells Noah that the rainbow will appear at times when He deems the world worthy of destruction. It will serve as a reminder for God (so to speak) of His promise that He will never again flood and destroy the world. Yet its very appearance denotes that the world should be destroyed at that very moment had God not promised otherwise. (See Genesis 9:8-17).
In fact, based on this, Jewish law states that if a person sees a rainbow, he should not tell anyone else, as it would be a form of sharing bad news (Mishna Berurah 229:1).
There is likewise a Midrash that a rainbow never appeared during certain very righteous generations – such as during the times of the righteous King Hezkiah or of the great Kabbalist R. Shimon bar Yochai – when the world clearly did not deserve destruction (Bereishit Rabbah 35:2). - https://aish.com/is-seeing-a-rainbow-good-or-bad/
Rainbows are one of the most beautiful phenomena steeped in a deep history that spans all cultures and religions.