What are the colours of the rainbow?
It is easy in this age of digital technology with free-flowing information to forget or not remember what we have heard or learned. My question to you is a simple one, "What are the colours of the rainbow?" The question may look to be a simple one but to me, there appears to be some confusion about the number of colours in the rainbow. So come with me on this journey of exploration.
As the song says, ‘Let’s start at the very beginning, A very good place to start.’ No doubt many of you will wonder, “Where do we start when thinking about rainbows? Where is the beginning?” The first documented reports about the rainbow appear in the book of Genesis 9:12-17. Noah had just come off the ark after the flood, “And God said, This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” God explained to Noah that the rainbow would be a sign while the earth existed that it would not be destroyed by a flood.
It is understood that the eco-system of the earth was different prior to the flood and the climate that we have now. After the flood, the earth was watered with rain. When Noah first encountered rain it lasted for forty days and flooded the whole earth. To put Noah and each generation of human beings at ease when the next raindrops fell and as a promise to humanity, God promised that the earth would never be destroyed by a flood again. Even on the wettest day or week, we know that the rain is going to stop at some point. That promise from God was given with the sign of the rainbow which we can depend on to be true. It is a symbol of a relationship between God and humanity on the earth, it is a sign of hope and God's sustaining power on the earth. There is something about the rainbow that is attractive to mankind.
I have included a couple of videos on the formation of rainbows. One of them could be quite a good activity for young families to do!
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| What Causes a Rainbow (Website) |
Having established the origins of the rainbow and how rainbows are formed it seems that they have appeared and disappeared in the sky until along came a man called Sir Isaac Newton.
Sir Isaac Newton appears to have been very intelligent and made a huge contribution to our world. Interestingly many of these discoveries were made at his own home as he was locked out of university due to the Great Plague. (Sounds familiar!!)
Newton, as part of his studies established that light could be broken down into different colours which he identified as, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
Flags were originally associated with nations or groups of people. That use has now been expanded and there is a growing trend for business and cultural organizations to have flags. More recently social causes have also adopted flags. What I find interesting is how much influence the rainbow has had on the creation of flags which are found around the world.
The rainbow has been converted into various arrangements of what we have started to call rainbow flags, some of which I have listed below:
Basque nationalism/Herri Batasuna.
Bene Ohr Jewish movement, U.S. (1961)
Jewish Autonomous Oblast (1996)
LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride(1978)
In 1978 San Francisco artist and drag queen Gilbert Baker developed a multi-coloured flag as the symbol of the gay community, which today has broadened to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ+).
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| Origins of Gay Pride Flag |
Baker’s “rainbow flag” originally contained eight colours, each with a symbolic meaning: sex (hot pink), life (red), healing (orange), sunlight (yellow), nature (green), art (turquoise), harmony/peace (indigo/blue), and spirit (purple/violet). For some reason two colours were dropped from the original design.
The LGBT flag or any other flag for that matter cannot be called a rainbow flag unless it actually contains the colours of the rainbow. We need to remind ourselves that there are seven colours in the rainbow. We could say these are God's colours because He created the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
Patriots of Russia political party (2005)
In the late 1400s, there was a Christian reformer by the name of Thomas Muntzer (1489-1525). It is reported that he preached while holding a rainbow flag in his hand. A statue of Muntzer, holding a rainbow flag, stands in Stolberg, Germany. Following on from the example of Muntzer the peasants of the 16th century, during the German Peasant’s War used a rainbow flag with an image of peasants’ boots to represent hope for social change.
In recent days we have seen a very welcome and very encouraging sign of national unity as we demonstrate our support for those working in the National Health Service (NHS). As part of that support people have been putting up rainbow flags and children have been colouring in rainbows but how many colours have they used? Are they truly rainbow flags? Does it matter?
When it comes to the NHS how many colours are in the rainbows that we are painting and flying and wearing?
In this blog, it has been interesting for me and I trust for you, to discover that people across the world have been aware of the rainbow and for some reason has been keen to embrace its colours. It is also interesting to note that people from a range of faiths and of none have turned to the rainbow for inspiration. There has also been a range of causes that have taken inspiration for their ideology from the rainbow.
As we looked at each of these flags and their arrangement of the colours what did we observe? How many colours were there? What are the colours of the rainbow? It can become a bit confusing. I will take you back again to my Primary School Days when we were taught the little rhyme that went as follows, ‘Richard of York grew beans in Vienna.' This still reminds me today that the seven colours of the rainbow as identified by Sir Isaac Newton are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.
Scientifically there is a whole spectrum of colours which can't be captured on a flag. To my mind, it is a misrepresentation of the rainbow to call your flag a rainbow flag if it doesn’t capture all the colours of the rainbow. Primarily the rainbow was given to us by a Creator God as the sign of a promise that He would protect the world from being destroyed by another flood. We could also look to the rainbow as a reminder of the consequences of sin and how God sent a flood as punishment. We should live close to God through saving faith in Jesus Christ who has paid the price for our sin on the cross of Calvary so that we can have eternal life in the presence of God forever. In other words, the rainbow is primarily a symbol of hope which is found in God alone.
We have got so swept along by movements and social causes that we have drifted from the facts and which colours are in the rainbow. Time after time we are discrediting the rainbow and undermining the intelligence of humanity by calling something a rainbow or a rainbow flag or a rainbow badge when it does not contain all the colours of the rainbow.
The use of the rainbow in drawings and especially flags has caused some resentment amongst the LGBTQ+ community as they feel that the rainbow flag is their flag and it has been stolen or borrowed by the nation to support the NHS. But can anyone really take ownership of a group of colours?
Maybe in a tide of goodwill in demonstrating our support for those working in the National Health Service we have lost the meaning of what we are doing. Have we been using the rainbow to reflect our hope that the NHS will help our loved ones recover in the face of the threat posed by coronavirus? Have we been using the rainbow because we are taking pride in our NHS and idolizing it? Are we actually using a rainbow with all of its colours in the first place?
Whichever format we paint or colour our rainbows it is good to remind ourselves that the rainbow was given by God as a sign to a promise, as a sign of hope and as a sign of protection and as a sign of eternity. No matter what use we put the rainbow to let us first remember the original story about how we come to have it and the reason why.
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