Pointing at a rainbow
Old Shropshire belief held that you should never point at a rainbow, and other traditions warned against pointing at the moon. The ban treats the sky like a person who might take offense, and the urge to point starts before we can speak.
What it may mean
Children are told early not to point at people, and the old rules about rainbows stretch the same manners to the sky. In Shropshire it was common knowledge that a finger raised at a rainbow called down misfortune, and other sayings warned against pointing at the moon. The common thread is respect: a finger singles something out, the way a child's finger can single out a stranger on a bus. Yet pointing is also one of our first ways of sharing. A toddler points at a dog long before saying the word, just to make sure you see it too. Standing under a rainbow with your arm halfway up, you are caught between two lessons you learned young (look and share, or look and keep still), and it is interesting to notice which one wins.
Depending on how you saw it
Showing a rainbow to a child
Getting a small child to see a rainbow often takes a pointed arm and a crouch to their eye level. Words like "up" and "left" do little against a whole sky. Who has had to crouch to your level lately so you could see what they saw?
Pointing at the moon instead
The 1903 encyclopedia by Daniels and Stevans reports that the ancient Jews held it very unlucky to stretch out an arm and point at the moon, and that Indigenous people in Canada warned children their fingers would be bitten off if they did. Which rule from your childhood did you keep long after you forgot the reason?
Pointing it out to a stranger
On a busy street, one person pointing at the sky can stop half a block. People look up because someone else did. When did you last follow a crowd's gaze before you knew what you were looking for?
Why it happens in nature
Pointing is among the first gestures babies use to share attention, typically around their first birthday and before they can speak. Adults point at the sky because it has few landmarks, so words alone rarely steer another person's eyes to a faint arc or a thin moon.
What folk beliefs say
England (Shropshire)
It was a well-known belief in Shropshire, a 1903 collection says, that it is unlucky to point at a rainbow.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 979. View the page
To reflect on
Who taught you what is rude to point at, and do you still follow those rules?