Rainbow

The rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon. It can be observed in the sky, where it appears as a characteristic, recognizable and multi-colored arc. A rainbow is created as a result of the splitting of visible light, that is, the refraction and reflection of solar radiation within the innumerable droplets of water that accompany rain and fog, which have a shape similar to a spherical one. The phenomenon of light division here is the result of another, namely scattering, division of light radiation, as a result of which there are differences in the angles of refraction of different wavelengths of light passing from air to water and from water to air.

Visible light is defined as the portion of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation perceived by human vision. The color change is related to the wavelength. Sunlight penetrates through raindrops, and water scatters white light into its constituent parts, waves of different lengths and colors. The human eye perceives this phenomenon as a multi-colored arch. A rainbow is characterized by a continuous spectrum of colors, but a person distinguishes several colors in it:

• red - always out of the arc
• orange
• yellow
• green
• blue
• indigo
• violet - always inside the rainbow arc

Usually we see one primary rainbow in the sky, but it happens that we can also observe secondary and other rainbows, as well as various optical phenomena accompanying them. A rainbow always forms in front of the sun.

Rainbow in culture, religion and mythology

The rainbow has appeared in world culture since the earliest times of oral transmission. In Greek mythology, it symbolizes the path that Iris, the female version of Hermes, traveled, crossing it between Earth and Heaven.

Chinese mythology tells us about the phenomenon of the rainbow as a metaphor for a crack in the sky, closed by a mound of stones of five or seven colors.

In Hindu mythology, a rainbow  called Indradhanushha that  means Indra's bow , the god of lightning. According to Scandinavian mythology, a rainbow is a kind of colorful bridge connecting the world of gods and the world of people .

Irish god  Ieprehaun  hid gold in a pot and a pot at the end of the rainbow, that is, in a place completely inaccessible to people, because, as everyone knows, the rainbow does not exist in any particular place, and the phenomenon of the rainbow depends on from the point of view.

The rainbow symbol in the Bible

Noah's Sacrifice (circa 1803) by Joseph Anton Koch. Noah builds an altar after the end of the Flood; God sends a rainbow as a sign of His covenant.

The rainbow phenomenon is also found in the Bible. In the old testament the rainbow symbolizes the covenant between man and God. This is the promise given by God - Yahweh Noah. The promise says that on The earth is bigger never the flood won't hit   - flood. The symbolism of the rainbow was continued in Judaism with a movement called Bnei Noah, whose members cultivate the name of their ancestor Noah. This movement is clearly visible in the modern Talmud. The rainbow also appears in "  Wisdom of Sirach " , the book of the Old Testament, where this is one of the manifestations of creation that requires worship of God. The rainbow also appears in the New Testament in the Revelation of Saint John, compared to the emerald and the appearance above the angel's head.

Rainbow as a symbol of the LGBT movement

The colorful rainbow flag was designed by American artist Gilbert Baker in 1978. Baker was a gay man who moved to San Francisco and met Harvey Milk, the first gay man to be elected to the city council. And the figure of Milek himself, and rainbow flag have become symbols of the international LGBT community. It happened in the 1990s. The story of the first gay bureaucrat to feature a multicolored rainbow can be seen in the Oscar-winning film by Gus van Santa with Sean Penn.

The choice of the rainbow as a symbol of the entire community is due to its multicolor, a set of colors, representing the diversity of the LGBT community (see Other LGBT symbols ). The number of colors does not coincide with the divisions of the rainbow known there, since it consists of six colors, chosen more pragmatically than ideologically. At the same time, the rainbow flag has become a symbol of social tolerance and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.