Each year on April 3rd, National Find A Rainbow Day challenges us to look to the sky and find a colorful ray of hope cast across it.
- There are people that see rainbows as an artistic masterpiece in the sky, to others it is a sign of hope and to many a sign of promise. It can be all three; beauty, hope and promise. (Jill Magnus)
- Rainbows are phenomena caused by refraction, light reflection, and dispersion in water droplets.
- The colors of the rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
- An easy way to remember the colors of the rainbow is ROYGBIV.
- No two people see the same exact rainbow.
- Rainbows are actually circles but they look like arches when we view them from the ground.
- The primary rainbow usually appears after a Rainstorm.
- According to Greek mythology, the rainbow is a bridge between heaven and earth.
- The ancient people of Serbia believed that the rainbow was the Storm God’s bow.
- “Rainbow” comes from the Latin arcus pluvius, meaning “rainy arch.”
- Red rainbows are also called monochrome rainbows – formed after rainfall during sunrise or sunset.
- Double rainbows occur when light bounces inside the water droplet more than once.
- Rainbows are the universal symbol of peace and harmony.
- The state of Hawaii is home to the most Rainbows than any other area on Earth.
- In today’s culture it is considered lucky to look at a rainbow and it is known as a symbol of renewed hope.
- In Norse mythology, the rainbow bridge Bifröst connects the world of men (Midgard) and the realm of the gods (Asgard).
- The Irish leprechaun’s secret hiding place for his pot of gold is usually said to be at the end of the rainbow.
- In the ancient beliefs of Japan and Gabon, rainbows were the bridges that human ancestors took to descend to the planet.
- An old European belief is that anyone passing underneath a rainbow would be changed from a man into a woman or woman into man!
- The idea that a pot of gold can be found at the rainbow’s end originated in old Europe. In a place called Silesia it was said that the angels put the gold there and that only a nude man could obtain the prize.
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