A rainbow can mark hidden treasure in one folklore record, threaten a pointing finger in another, and act as a boundary capable of transforming a person in several Balkan and Turkic traditions. The same visible arc has produced sharply different beliefs about luck, weather, water, harvests, bodily danger and supernatural boundaries.
Some rainbow beliefs occur across cultures that had very different languages and histories. The prohibition against pointing is especially widespread, while beliefs about a rainbow drinking water appear across parts of Europe and elsewhere. Other traditions are much more local. They are best treated as recorded regional folklore rather than as beliefs shared by an entire modern country.
Pointing at a Rainbow
Pointing at a Rainbow Can Harm the Finger
One of the most widely documented rainbow taboos forbids pointing at the arc with an extended index finger. Recorded consequences vary widely: the finger may become bent, stiff, swollen, infected, withered or lost. Versions have been documented in Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.
An Accidental Point May Require a Counter-Action
Some versions provide a way to undo an accidental pointing offense. Tboli accounts from the Philippines instruct a child to put the finger in the mouth, while a Pahang Malay record calls for spitting on the offending finger. A Moru account from South Sudan instead prescribes interlacing the fingers and pointing again.
Crossing the Rainbow and Changing Identity
Passing Under the Rainbow Changes a Person’s Sex
A transformation motif appears in Turkish and several southeastern European folk traditions. Passing beneath, crossing or otherwise getting under the rainbow is said to turn a male into a female or a female into a male. Serbian and Bulgarian records often connect the transformation with the place where the rainbow reaches water.
Drinking Water Touched by the Rainbow Causes Transformation
The crossing motif has a water-based counterpart. Romanian folklore recorded in comparative studies says that drinking water at the end of the rainbow changes a person’s sex. Bulgarian variants combine drinking from the place where the rainbow has dipped into the water with passing beneath the arc.
When the Rainbow Drinks
The Rainbow Draws Water Up to the Sky
In Lithuanian and Estonian oral tradition, the rainbow can behave like a living water-drawing force. It drinks or pulls water from lakes, rivers and other bodies of water toward the sky. Lithuanian records go further: animals or people caught within its reach may also be drawn upward.
Stay Away from the Place Where the Rainbow Drinks
Once a rainbow is imagined as drinking from earthly water, approaching its drinking place becomes dangerous in some traditions. A Central Serbian record from Gruža says the rainbow liked to drink near water mills, and people were therefore warned against entering the river at such places.
Treasure at the End of the Arc
The End of the Rainbow Hides Money or Gold
Folklore archive records preserve the familiar idea that reaching the end of a rainbow reveals wealth. A Detroit record collected in 1972 describes either a pot of gold or sack of money, while a separate record learned in Nassau, Bahamas, also places a pot of gold at the rainbow’s end.
Reading Weather and Harvests in Rainbow Colors
Red and Green Can Foretell Different Weather
Estonian folklore collections preserve color-based weather predictions. One version says a red rainbow means no rain while a green one means rain; another links a clearer red band with stronger wind. The documented interpretations are not uniform, and the same study notes contradictions between individual versions.
Dominant Colors Predict the Coming Harvest
Bulgarian folklore gives some rainbow colors an agricultural meaning. The intensity of different bands could be read as a forecast of future yields. Recorded explanations associate stronger red with grapes or wine, yellow with wheat and green with grass, turning the rainbow into a seasonal harvest sign.
The Side of the Sky Can Change the Weather Meaning
English-language weather lore does not always treat a rainbow as a generic omen. The U.S. National Weather Service records a proverb in which a rainbow in the east is followed by fair conditions, while one in the west warns of wet weather. Such sayings belong to observational weather lore rather than supernatural prediction.
Two Arcs, Two Identities
A Double Rainbow Can Be a Male-Female Pair
Some traditions interpret the two arcs of a double rainbow as separate beings rather than copies of the same phenomenon. Traditional Malay terminology describes a double rainbow as a paired household or married pair, giving the brighter and fainter arcs a social identity instead of treating them only as bands of light.
Documented Rainbow Beliefs by Country and Culture
| Country or Culture | Documented Variation | Meaning | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philippines | Pointing at a rainbow may bend, swell or harm the finger | Warning | Recorded among Ilokano, Tagalog, Manobo and Tboli communities |
| Philippines | Put the finger in the mouth after accidentally pointing | Protection | Tboli record from Mindanao |
| Thailand | Counter-actions are performed after pointing at a rainbow | Protection | Thai and Karen variants recorded separately |
| Malaysia | Pointing with the index finger may make the hand rot or fall off | Warning | Recorded among peninsular Malays in Pahang |
| Malaysia | Spit on the finger after accidentally pointing | Protection | Pahang Malay record |
| Ghana | Pointing at a rainbow may cripple the hand | Warning | Recorded among the Adele of northern Ghana’s Volta region |
| South Sudan | Pointing may cause the offending finger to rot | Warning | Moru folklore record |
| South Sudan | Interlace the fingers and point again to undo the offense | Protection | Moru counter-action |
| Uganda | Pointing at a rainbow makes the finger stiff | Warning | Baganda record |
| Türkiye | Passing under the rainbow changes a person’s sex | Transformation | Documented Turkish folk-belief motif |
| Bulgaria | Passing under the rainbow changes a person’s sex | Transformation | Recorded in Tarnovo and Kyustendil regional traditions |
| Bulgaria | Drink where the rainbow reaches water as part of a sex-change belief | Transformation | One documented Bulgarian variant combines drinking and passing beneath the rainbow |
| Serbia | Passing under the rainbow where it drinks water changes sex | Transformation | Recorded in Gruža, Central Serbia |
| Serbia | Avoid entering water where the rainbow is believed to drink | Warning | Tradition associated with rivers near water mills |
| Romania | Drinking water at the end of a rainbow changes sex | Transformation | Traditional belief reported in comparative ethnological research |
| Pakistan | Rolling beneath a rainbow causes a change of sex | Transformation | Recorded among Pathan or Pashtun communities in northern Pakistan |
| Lithuania | The rainbow draws water from earthly water bodies into the sky | Water belief | Recorded in Lithuanian oral tradition |
| Lithuania | People should not point a finger at the rainbow | Warning | Behavioral taboo documented in Lithuanian folklore |
| Estonia | A water-drinking rainbow may draw up a person beneath it | Warning | Estonian archival folklore discussed by Virve Sarapik |
| Estonia | Pointing may make the finger fall away, mortify or rot | Warning | Recorded Estonian rainbow taboo |
| Estonia | Red and green rainbow colors are used in weather prediction | Weather | Multiple archival variants exist and are not fully consistent |
| United States | A pot of gold or sack of money lies at the end of the rainbow | Prosperity | Folklore record collected in Detroit, Michigan |
| Bahamas | A pot of gold can be found at the end of the rainbow | Prosperity | Folklore record learned in Nassau |
| Bulgaria | Dominant rainbow colors predict yields of grapes, wheat or grass | Prosperity | Bulgarian agricultural folklore |
| United States | Eastern and western rainbows carry different weather predictions | Weather | Traditional weather proverb documented by the National Weather Service |
| Malaysia | A double rainbow is interpreted as a male-female pair | Paired beings | Traditional Malay terminology recorded in comparative ethnology |
📚 Roots of Belief
- Anthropos — Robert Blust, “Pointing, Rainbows, and the Archaeology of Mind” — Peer-reviewed anthropological study documenting the prohibition against pointing at rainbows across widely separated cultures and the different consequences attached to the act.
- Brill — Robert Blust, “The Ethnology of the Rainbow” — Open-access scholarly chapter in The Dragon and the Rainbow documenting rainbow-pointing taboos, counter-actions, category-reversal beliefs, water-drinking rainbows and paired interpretations of double rainbows across multiple regions.
- KARE International Comparative Literature Journal — “Halk İnanışlarında Cinsiyet Değiştirme Motifi Bağlamında Ömer Seyfettin’in ‘Eleğimsağma’ Hikâyesi” — Academic study identifying the belief that passing under a rainbow changes a person’s sex as a motif rooted in Turkish folk belief and comparing it with related traditions.
- Anthropology Journal — Miroslav Izdimirski, “The Rainbow in Bulgarian Folklore and Some Gender Issues” — Ethnological study covering Bulgarian rainbow names, water beliefs, harvest predictions and sex-transformation traditions, with comparative material from Serbia and neighboring regions.
- Lituanistika — Nijolė Laurinkienė, “Rainbow in Lithuanian Oral Tradition” — Scholarly folklore record describing the rainbow drawing water upward, occasionally taking animals or people with it, and the Lithuanian prohibition against pointing at the rainbow.
- Electronic Journal of Folklore — Virve Sarapik, “Rainbow, Colours and Science Mythology” — Academic discussion of Estonian and neighboring rainbow traditions, including the water-drinking rainbow, pointing taboo and color-based weather predictions.
- University of Detroit Mercy Libraries — James T. Callow Folklore Archive, Rainbow Beliefs — University folklore archive containing Detroit records that place a pot of gold or sack of money at the end of a rainbow.
- University of Detroit Mercy Libraries — James T. Callow Folklore Archive, Treasure Records — Archival collection containing a rainbow-end pot-of-gold belief recorded as learned in Nassau, Bahamas.
- U.S. National Weather Service — “How Do Rainbows Form?” — Official meteorological resource explaining rainbow formation and preserving the traditional east-versus-west rainbow weather proverb.