Main Piece:

Lee: The story of the leprechaun goes that they are little old men who wear green coats. They are like super mischievous. They are like little trouble makers. They work at making shoes and sell it for gold coins. The leprecoins (making a tongue twisted noise) the leprechauns all worked together for a really long time hid their gold coins in a pot. They then hid that pot at the end of the rainbow. The leprechauns hid the gold at the end of the rainbow so they could find it.That’s why people say follow the rain and at the end you’ll find a pot of gold.

Context: 

This piece of folklore was collected in a Taco Bell I work at. I asked my fellow employee if there were any sayings or proverbs that he knew. He gave me one and then after when we both took our breaks he told me this proverb. This time we were sitting down at a table in the dining area and eating.

Background:

Lee is a third generation American. However, his ancestral roots originate in South Korea. Lee is unaware of who he learned this folk belief from. He said he learned this tale from a book his mom used to read him when he would go to sleep. This tale hold sentiment to him for this reason.

My thoughts:

This particular tale also incorporates a bit of variation and a common folk belief. In different variations of this tale, the pot of gold created the rainbow. The folk belief incorporated is that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

It is also interesting to see different folk beliefs for certain objects. For example, a rainbow is also believed to be a symbol from God saying that he will no longer flood the earth. It is a belied tied to Christian belief that Earth was flooded and the only survivors were those on Noah’s Arc.