Our culture teaches us to ask for Gods blessing upon a person who has just sneezed. Why is that, where did this
tradition begin. Is this just a Christian thing, or do other religions also ask their God's blessing upon sneezers?
2006-09-26 08:26:28 · 37 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
They used to think that when a person sneezed, their soul left their body so they were asking God to bless them so their soul wouldn't leave. I dont believe your soul leaves you, I believe you are your soul so I dont say god bless you since I think its silly.
2006-09-26 08:28:24 · answer #1 · answered by BOSCO 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
That went back to the ages of ignorance when people thought that sneezing expelled your soul from your body. You then needed divine intervention to protect you during the time before the soul gets back inside or you will lose that soul. Now that people are more aware of what comes out when you sneeze (not your soul) it is just a quaint custom.
It is also a great way to hit on an attractive stranger if you are near one in an airport for example. If she sneezes you can say God Bless You and try to get a followup conversation going. There aren't very many phrases that are tailor made for talking to complete strangers so this has remained popular.
Every religion seems to do this, probably again harking back to old days.
2006-09-26 08:38:16 · answer #2 · answered by Rich Z 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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!
2006-09-26 08:28:48 · answer #3 · answered by Solomon Grundy 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I'm given to understand that it began as a superstition in the Middle Ages. It was thought that, when a person sneezed, their soul temporarily left thier body. Blessing the person was meant to prevent demonic possesion before it could return.
Many cultures have some sort of ritual for sneezes. Generally they translate into "good health", the german "gesundheit" for example.
2006-09-26 08:30:05 · answer #4 · answered by juicy_wishun 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God bless you or bless you after someone sneezes is short for 'May God bless your health'. Most cultures have something similar such as 'gesundheit' or 'salut'. The actual phrase 'God bless you' has no defined date of origin since people believed in God before the Christian church was formed.
2006-09-26 08:35:24 · answer #5 · answered by Kelly S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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
2006-09-26 08:28:29 · answer #6 · answered by asparaguskiss 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The origin of saying "Bless you!" when someone sneezes stems from an ancient desire to safeguard the sneezer's soul or to commend the dying to the mercy of God.
2006-09-26 08:36:01 · answer #7 · answered by Sqdr 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the old days, before modern medicine, a sneeze could be a much more serious thing than it is today. In fact, people who sneezed could very well be on their way toward death, and could use the extra blessing. In German they say "Gesundheit," which translates to "Health" In Spanish they say "Salut," which also means "Health." I'm not sure about other English-speaking religions.
2006-09-26 08:34:15 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This stems back to the time of the plague or Black Death. One of the early symptoms of Bubonic Plague was sneezing. So anyone sneezing in the Middle Ages may have been viewed as likely to die quite rapidy and was therefore in need of God's blessing.
2006-09-26 08:27:56 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
One traditional explanation for the custom is that it began literally as a blessing. Pope Gregory I the Great (AD 540-604) ascended to the Papacy just in time for the start of the bubonic plague in AD 590 (his successor succumbed to it). To combat the plague, Gregory ordered litanies, processions and unceasing prayer for God's blessing. When someone sneezed (seen as the initial onset of the plague), they were immediately blessed ("God bless you!") in the hope that they would not actually develop the disease.
2006-09-26 08:29:06 · answer #10 · answered by JoDe 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I remember hearing once that it was believed that upon sneezing your soul could leave your body, and by asking god to bless the person, you were "saving their soul" which would then re-enter the body...just one of those things carried over through time and traditions.
2006-09-26 08:30:02 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋