Our colour of the month for June is celebrating all things Pride… so it’s only fitting to celebrate RAINBOW! June is recognised worldwide as the LGBTQ+ Pride Month, in honor of the Stonewall Riots in New York 1969.
In 1978, Gilbert Baker designed the first rainbow flag in honor of Pride. He was urged by Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gar elected officials in the US, to create a symbol of pride for the gay community. This is where he came up with the rainbow flag… he saw rainbows as a natural flag from the sky!
He designed a flag with eight colours, all having different meanings:
Hot Pink – Sex, Red – Life, Orange – Healing, Yellow – Sunlight, Green – Nature, Turquoise – Art, Indigo – Harmony & Violet – Spirit
However, because of production issues the Pink and Turquoise were removed, and the indigo was replaced with basic Blue (representing Serenity)… this resulted in the contemporary six colour flag that we know today.
It wasn’t until 1994 that the flag was truly estabilised as the symbol for LGBTQ+ Pride when Baker made the first mile-long flag for the 25thanniversary of the Stonewall Riots, now a tradition when celebrating Pride at the annual Parades across the world!
During the current global pandemic, the rainbow has taken a new meaning! People are using it for spreading hope, positivity and appreciation for our NHS. Hundreds of people have been creating their own rainbows to put in their windows to spread the word!
Fun Facts about Rainbows:
Did you know… rainbows actually contain more then 1 million colours!! But because of our Human eyes… we can’t see all the in-between hues.
Did you know… rainbows are actually round, not semi circle? Because we are seeing them from the ground, they appear to be the famous arch shape… but if you are high enough to view the whole rainbow (on a plane or on top of some mountains), you’d know that they actually make up a whole circle!
Did you know… rainbows don’t only appear in the day! They can appear at night and are called Moonbows (or lunar rainbows). Created when light reflected by the moon hits water droplets in the air (rather than light from the sun)! For a Moonbow to be created, it required a full (or almost full) moon.
Did you know… when you see a double rainbow, the colours on the top rainbow are reversed? The light is reflected twice inside one water droplet, creating another rainbow mirrored above the first!
Did you know… there isn’t really a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow being guarded by leprechauns… unfortunately, it’s just a myth!
Check out our Instagram page for all of our fun and exciting ideas for using Rainbows!
Show us how you’re using our colour of the month by sending in your own photos… they could even be featured on our Blog or Pinterest!
