For most people, rainbows symbolize...
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For most people, rainbows symbolize hope. Certainly for Christians and Jews, we think immediately of the promise made by God that a flood would never again cover the entire earth. But other stories of the rainbow abound and shed a bit of light on its power to captivate.
In medieval times, German people believed that no rainbows would appear within forty years of the end of the world. Thus seeing the rainbow, one knew there was at least forty more years to live.
The Irish legends hold that at the end of the rainbow one will find leprechauns and a pot of gold. In Japan, the rainbow is called "The Floating Bridge to Heaven," which is similar to some North American Indians who talk about the Pathway of the Souls. Both ideas suggest that the rainbow leads to heaven.
Maybe Wordsworth said it best when he penned the words, "My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky: So it was when my life began; So it is now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, or let me die!"
In medieval times, German people believed that no rainbows would appear within forty years of the end of the world. Thus seeing the rainbow, one knew there was at least forty more years to live.
The Irish legends hold that at the end of the rainbow one will find leprechauns and a pot of gold. In Japan, the rainbow is called "The Floating Bridge to Heaven," which is similar to some North American Indians who talk about the Pathway of the Souls. Both ideas suggest that the rainbow leads to heaven.
Maybe Wordsworth said it best when he penned the words, "My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky: So it was when my life began; So it is now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, or let me die!"
