Rainbows by Angela Rieck

“Oh, look, it’s a double rainbow,” exclaimed the waiter in our restaurant. We were seated outdoors in Key West and we looked up to see a magnificent double rainbow, with one rainbow directly positioned on top of the other. Everyone gazed at the rainbow. Fellow diners, people on the street, everyone stopped what they were doing and marveled at it.

Recently I got a text photo from a friend that pictured a rainbow that she saw in Portugal.

I don’t know what it is that makes rainbows so special. Of course, they are beautiful Their arc stretches across the sky in a perfect semicircle. The fuzzy ribbons of color blend with the clouds to create a mystical moment. All the colors of the rainbow seem to dance around its onlookers.

Across many cultures, a rainbow symbolizes hope, promise, new beginnings, and peace. In the Judeo-Christian story, a rainbow represents God’s covenant with humanity. After the flood waters receded, Noah saw a rainbow and heard God’s promise to never destroy the earth again. 

The Irish search for the gold at the end of the rainbow. In the Navajo tradition, the rainbow is the path to the holy spirits. 

In Norse mythology, the rainbow bridge, Bifröst, connects the mortal world to the realm of the gods. When beloved animals die, their owners are comforted when they imagine them crossing the rainbow bridge. In Hinduism, the rainbow symbolizes the bow of Indra, the god of thunder and rain, often associated with happiness. 

Others see it as a sign of encouragement or a message from loved ones who have passed away.

The rainbow is also a sign of diversity, inclusion, and LGBTQ+ pride. The rainbow flag, created by Gilbert Baker in 1978, symbolizes the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community, hope, and social action.

A rainbow is a symbol of beauty emerging from darkness, often after a thunderstorm.

Rainbows are created through a three-step process of refraction, reflection, and dispersion that occurs when sunlight hits millions of tiny water droplets in the atmosphere. When sunlight—which is actually a mix of all colors—enters a raindrop, it slows down and bends, a process known as refraction. Inside the droplet, the light hits the back surface and undergoes reflection, bouncing back toward the front. As it exits the droplet, it refracts again, and because different colors of light (wavelengths) bend at slightly different angles—violet bending the most and red the least—the light is split into its component colors, a process called dispersion.

For a rainbow to be visible to our eyes, specific environmental conditions must be met: 

• Both bright sunlight and suspended water droplets (like rain, mist, or spray) must be in the air.  
• We must be standing between the sun and the rain, with the sun behind us. The light reflects back most strongly at an angle of roughly 42 degrees relative to our line of sight. 
• Because a rainbow depends on our specific position relative to the sun and droplets, every one sees our own unique rainbow. 

Rainbows are actually full circles, but from the ground, the horizon usually cuts off the bottom half, making it look like an arc. Pilots can see the complete circle at high altitudes.

That rainbow in Key West remained fixed in the sky, the top one eventually faded but the lower one followed me wherever I went, walking on the street, cycling home, and even at the pier at sunset.

As I stared at it, I developed a new theory. Rather than a promise or an omen, maybe a rainbow is just a rainbow. A beautiful work of nature to enjoy in all of its splendor.