It's not theory. We can say the origins of rainbow were when the "big bang" happened, or if you're christian... when adam banged eve. But when it comes down to it...Woodstock was the precursor and most direct influence on the first gathering - a reunion of sorts... "The first official Rainbow Gathering took place in 1972. It was first inspired at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when a number of people decided that they wanted to gather again. Though it took three years, that first invitation went out and it read as follows: “We, who are brothers & sisters, the children of God, the family of life on earth, friends of nature & of all people, the children of humankind calling ourselves the Rainbow Tribe, humbly invite: “All races, peoples, tribes, communes, men, women, children, individuals -- out of love. “All nations & national leaders -- out of respect “All religions & religious leaders -- out of faith “All politicians -- out of charity " From myspace rainbowtribes group: http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm...&MyToken=a241982b-b399-4b72-b72b-306bf5571725
um even the link you posted sites the "humanbe-in" in 1967 as the first precursor to the gatherings.. im just playin devils advocate here.. i really dont look at the family as having a begining or a ending...
Of course hippies and peace and love existed before woodstock. Rainbow was a woodstock reunion... But everyone's got their opinion...Mine is that w/o woodstock their wouldn't be rainbow as we know it today...
The Be-In in Jan'67 would have been more of a first Rainbow Gathering IMHO...or maybe back in '65-'66 when the Pranksters invited the Angles to their communal space in LaHonda Woodstock was intended to be a commercial event & Rainbow has never been about commercialism. While Woodstock was a cool event, it was only one of many large concerts that summer. I believe that Rainbow would have evolved just the same if Woodstock had never happened...but the Summer of Love gave birth to a great many things
Summer of love, YES! I missed Woodstock and never had any regrets about it at all. I've never stopped regretting that I missed the summer of love. As far as when hippies first came into existence, I myself would question this and did the first time I heard it and saw pictures of them, it was none other then Nazi Germany. Sad but unfortunately true, as far as my knowlege goes to this point. I would be more then happy if someone could dispute this and come up with something that was closer to the truth.
I always understood that it was started by a group of Viet Nam Vets that gathered with the only people that understood them. Themselves. That "Welcome Home" was the one they never got.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Themselves." after your first sentence and are you saying in the last sentence that the hippies were the only ones that welcomed the vets home. If that's what your saying weather it actually happened or not isn't as important as the fact that it should have and it would have been in keeping with genuine hippy philosophy. However, I am no spokesmen for hippies, even though I'd like to make people think I am; it's only my opinion. peter
That's an interesting rumor. The Gathering that is generally accepted as the '1st Rainbow Gathering' was promoted as the Vortex Gathering which took place in Granbury CO in 1972 and was attended by all kinds of folks. The National Guard got called out for that Gathering, but the energy was high & the Rainbow Storytellers say that during this Gathering, the people danced in front of a great fire. One person yelled 'We Are!' Someone else said 'The Rainbow!' Another voice rang 'Family!' 'Of Living Light!' sang another; and a mighty 'whoop' followed this 'proclaimation'. But overall I have to agree with HHB on the no beginning or end...for the Spirit was there always & will be forever more On an off-shoot of the "Welcome Home" the vets didn't get....now I'm gonna havta go ask some Elders the origins of Welcome Home. Anyone have any other ideas, rumors or theories of how Rainbows began to call 'Welcome Home'?
You are taking things too literal, Safety Pin; I am NOT saying that hippies evolved from Rainbow Gatherings...Rainbow is something undefinable; a oneness, an entity...so many things including the 'unspoken thing' which Tom Wolfe wrote of when trying to explain the vibe that the Pranksters shared, which is why I mentioned the Pranksters' community trip...(well & the fact that one of the Angels who attended the Prankster parties is a Rainbow Elder). Like Shakespear said, 'A rose by any other name is still a rose.' And a Rainbow by any other name is still a Rainbow; the vibe, the entity, the Spirit was there many centuries before the name. I mentioned the Be-In because it was billed as 'A Gathering of the Tribes'. Hippies evolved as the sixties generation of bohemia; before hippies there were the Beats & the hipsters & gypsies & vagabons and so on...but Rainbows are more of a parallel with Bohemians...A Rainbow might be a hippie but a hippie isn't nessessarily a Rainbow & there are Rainbows who aren't at all hippie... So are you really confused now
So are you really confused now [/QUOTE] Thoroughly confused, hippiestead, although I've always taken pride in the fact that I have a tremendous capacity to thrive on confusion. Anyway just to pick out one small point you made. I've never had any truck with bikers. Genrally the Angels are considered the first and as far as I am concerned they were instrumental to the survival of the whole counter culture back in the day. Like, the first line of defense betw. us and the establishment and I don't know if any of them would see it this way but the way I see it, they were the only group that was part of the counter culture before the whole hippy thing took off that are still part of it now, i.e. permanent counter culture people. Every self respecting hippy has something to learn from them. But these days bikers to me are just generally bikers. I learned some lessons the hard way when I was in jail with the Breed back in the seventies. I kept on bragging about the Angels telling the Breeders that the Angels were number one and such and they didn't mind it all that much, but I also spoke of some hippy families I knew of, one of which I'm sure you are familiar with, hippiestead, and they didn't like that too much at all. I should have known better though and although the whole experience was extremely unpleasent, I survived it and despite some real bad shit that happened to me, I still think bikers are good people no matter what group they represent but to me, after what I went through, it doesn't matter much whether they are Angels or Breed or Pagans or what have you. peace, peter
The bikers in our 'hood are fairly old school...seems like hippies & bikers are just meant to hang out, some sort of ying-yang type deal
You are sadly incorrect. Sad because the ORIGINAL hippie movement, which was an indirect outgrowth of the Wanderfogel and other counter culture movements in Germany from the 1880s until WWII, died when Hitler came to power. The fascists always clamp down on freedom. Wandervogel were teenagers who left the big industrialized cities and wandered around the countryside - ON THEIR OWN, no adults. They hiked, danced, sang, played music and just had a great time outdoors. They formed their own groups, setup overnight places across the country - which evolved into the Youth Hostels of the world. But when Hitler came to power, he realized the Wandervogel and other youth groups were off-message, not full of enough Nazi propaganda, so Hitler BANNED all these youth groups and replaced them with the Hitler Youth who as we all know brainwashed Germany's youth into becoming mindless followers of the Nazis, the complete ANTITHESIS of what the Wandervogel and other back to nature groups were about. Here's more info and images: http://www.hippy.com/php/article-243.html Here's a book my friend wrote on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966889800/hippylandhippiem
