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26 answers

Thanks to "Straight Dope" website :


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.

The connection of sneezing to the plague is not the first association of sneezing with death. According to Man, Myth, and Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown, many cultures, even some in Europe, believe that sneezing expels the soul--the "breath of life"--from the body. That doesn't seem too far-fetched when you realize that sneezing can send tiny particles speeding out of your nose at up to 100 miles per hour!

We know today, of course, that when you sneeze, your heart doesn't stop, nor will your eyes pop out if you can keep them open (www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_30 4.html), nor does your soul get expelled. What does get expelled are hundreds upon thousands of microscopic germs. The current advice when you sneeze is to cover your mouth with your arm rather than your hand. That way, all those germs won't be on your hands when you touch the countless things you're going to touch in the course of the day

2006-08-18 06:57:00 · answer #1 · answered by echo7 2 · 0 1

This practice started in the Middle Ages when it was thought that a sneeze ejected the soul out of the body. So the customary "blessing" was actually more of a pagan holdover spell-type thing to make the soul go back in - the reason for the words "bless you" was that they demonstrated the "blesser's" good intention, thus not a wiccan (person using witchcraft to put a spell on the soul and enslave it while it was outside the body).

2006-08-17 10:06:16 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

The reason I was always told , is because people used to think that if you sneezed, you would let go of your spirit for a while until someone said bless you.

2006-08-17 18:01:09 · answer #3 · answered by Cindy S 2 · 0 0

Back in the middle ages when a person sneezed it was believed that the devil was tickling your nose and looking for a way to get in and to possess you. So if a person blessed you when you sneezed you were protected from the evil spirits from taking over your body and eventually your soul.

2006-08-17 13:15:00 · answer #4 · answered by ldyrhiannon 4 · 0 1

Years ago (during the Victorian age) people believed that when you sneezed your soul was expelled from your body. To protect a persons body during this brief time until the soul returned, they blessed the person so that the Devil could not get in and gain a foothold on the persons body or worse even damn the body to eternal torment. It is amazing how ignorant believers can be-even today-most believers (and non-believers) are ignorant of what they believe or why.

2006-08-17 11:43:43 · answer #5 · answered by stephenblackwolf 1 · 1 1

It goes back to the time of the plague in Britain. One of the symptoms of the plague was sneezing and so it was thought that if you sneezed you may have the plague and so benear to death. They were blessed so as they may be saved.

Ring a ring of roses (a skin condition associated with the plague)
A pocketful of posies (flowers to mask the stench)
Atishoo atishoo (sneezing)
We all fall down (dead)

2006-08-17 10:05:25 · answer #6 · answered by Dazza 4 · 1 0

It all started during the "black death" otherwise known as the bubonic plague in Europe. Among the early symptoms were flu like conditions including sneezing. People would bless you, hoping you didn't become a victim - or if you did, that God would be merciful on your soul.

2006-08-17 10:04:33 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1 1

Because they used to believe that evil spirits made you sneeze and they said bless you to keep the evil spirits away.

2006-08-17 10:03:48 · answer #8 · answered by imjust_lori 3 · 0 0

It may have started during the time of the Black Plauge, when sneezing was expected to be the start of the disease, and only God could prevent it.

Other history (albeit questionable) can be found here:

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/blessyou.asp

2006-08-20 14:03:29 · answer #9 · answered by nathanielgpalmer 2 · 0 0

Because hitting someone over the head with a bar stool fell out of fashion in the early 1900's.

2006-08-17 16:34:15 · answer #10 · answered by krupintupple 2 · 0 0

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