I92a. Jumping Over the Rainbow. .27.29.32.
A person who jumps or steps over a rainbow changes his gender.
Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians, Crimean Tatars, Karachays, Ossetians, Georgians, Kurds, Bashkirs.
Balkans. Greeks [it is widely believed that whoever jumps over a rainbow will immediately change sex: a man will become a woman, and a woman will become a man; a brave and arrogant boy dared to jump over the rainbow; as soon as he did so, he changed sex]: Politis 1884-1885: 38-39 (retold in García Mouton 1984: 182); Albanians [the rainbow is a snake that descends to the earth to drink water; the brightness of a particular color in the rainbow can predict a good harvest of wine, oil, or wheat; when a girl jumps over a rainbow, she turns into a boy; if a boy succeeds, he becomes a girl]: Hahn 1854: 138; Bulgarians : Tolstoy 1997 ["According to other Bulgarian folk beliefs, whoever crosses the rainbow (or rather, passes under the rainbow) will change sex. See the entry by S.N. Shishkov from Akhyr-Chelebiysko (now Smolyansko) in the Rhodope Mountains and A. Gyaurova from the village of Plevnya, Dramsko”]: 207; Izdimirski 2020 [the one who jumps over the rainbow will change his gender: a man will become a woman and vice versa]: 108 (with reference to Shapkarev K. Gradivo za bъlgarski rechnik. Sofia, 2001. Pp. 15, 33).
Caucasus – Asia Minor. Crimean Tatars (recorded in 2007 in Simferopol by S.-A. Ibraimov, born in 1924) [the world is divided vertically by a rainbow – a “divine sword”, a “heavenly belt” ( kok kylychy , kok kyushagy ), both ends of which connect to the source of the river, dividing the world into two halves from top to bottom; if a young man jumps over the rainbow, he will turn into a girl, and if a girl does so, she will become a young man]: Seferova 2020: 53; Karachays [if a boy jumps over a rainbow, he will turn into a girl; if a girl, into a boy]: Pröhle 1909a, no. 7d: 267 (retold in Dzhurtubaev 1991: 140; 2007: 453; Karaketov 1995: 171); Ossetians [if a girl jumps over a rainbow, she will turn into a guy; if a guy, she will turn into a girl]: Tsgoev 2015: 59; Georgians (Rachins) [rainbow - God hangs out scraps of different colors; if a man jumps over the rainbow, he will become a woman and vice versa; the one who jumps over it dies after 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, maximum 3 years]: Japaridze 1896: 149; Kurds [among the Yazidis of Armenia, the gender changes when you jump over a rainbow (my own data); [According to one expert, other Kurds simply have to walk under a rainbow]: A. Petrosyan, personal communication 31.03.2010.
Volga – Perm. Bashkirs [“If you step over a rainbow, you will turn into a boy” (they say to girls); “They say that if a boy steps over a rainbow, he will turn into a girl, and vice versa”]: Khisamitdinova 2010: 43, 128, 312.