Why do we say "God Bless" after someone sneeze's?

Answer 1

Why do people say "god bless you" after someone else sneezes?
Pope Gregory the Great, who lived from 540 to 604 ad, said so.

He happened to ascend to the papacy just as the bubonic plague took hold.

Saying "god bless you" after someone sneezed was literally that--a blessing.

It's said that when people sneezed, they were immediately blessed with a "god bless you" as a prayer to prevent them from getting the plague.

Answer 2

It is believed that a person's soul is gone after you sneeze it and that the devil will take it if you don't say God bless cuz the God bless is to help the soul have God's blessing to ensure that it goes back to it's body.

Also:

Why do we say, "God bless you," after a sneeze? I'm not sure of the real reason, but I do know the reasoning offered by one of the nuns at my grade school.

She stated that, in biblical times, people were so weak and frail that a sneeze would often kill them. Thus, the blessing was offered in hopes that the person would not die.

I wonder if the nuns really believed all the crazy things they told us. Perhaps they just enjoyed the amusement of testing the limits of a seven-year-old's naiveness.

Answer 3

The custom of saying "God bless you" after a sneeze was begun literally as a blessing. Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 AD) ascended to the Papacy just in time for the start of the plague (his successor succumbed to it). Gregory (who also invented the ever-popular Gregorian chant) called for litanies, processions and unceasing prayer for God's help and intercession. Columns marched through the streets chanting, "Kyrie Eleison" (Greek for "Lord have mercy"). When someone sneezed, they were immediately blessed ("God bless you!") in the hope that they would not subsequently develop the plague. All that prayer apparently worked, judging by how quickly the plague of 590 AD diminished.

Answer 4

Actually, it is only a portion of an older saying, which was "God Bless you, Devil not get you." As has been mentioned, it used to be believed (by Puritans) that when you sneezed your soul actually left your body and the Devil would swoop down and steal it away. Hence, "bless you" was quite literally to save person's afterlife.

As for it being from the Medieval Era, there were certainly blessings but the modern "bless you" does not originate from them.

Answer 5

People used to believe that evil spirits escaped from a person when they sneezed. The "God bless you" after a sneeze was a plea for the evil spirit to not return to the sneezer.

Answer 6

People just say bless you to me....
But they say that (or a varration of that) Because in the Medevil times (the Christans) Believed that when you sneezed your soul came out and to stop a demon from entering they say bless you (or God bless)

Answer 7

Because some people thought you could loose your soul after you have sneezed. But there has been some people that had heart attacks after a sever sneeze.

Answer 8

Because back in the middle ages, it was though people sneezed out demons, so to say "God bless you", prevents the demons from re-entering the body.

Answer 9

This goes back to the middle ages when the black plague was killing thousands. One symptom of the black plague was sneezing. You sneezed they said God bless you while running away from you.

Answer 10

Because they say that when you sneeze, you don't breath for that moment and you could actually stop breathing. So people say, "God Bless You", because they hope that God will let them continue breathing. I guess it's a possibility that someone could actually stop breathing but, I never seen it.