Why do people say "bless you" when you sneeze?

Question

Where did that phrase start and why?

Answer 1

The first link is various world wide sneezing superstitions.

This is from the second website.

This is not far from the truth. According to the Old Wives Tales website, the saying 'Bless you' goes back to 150 AD when Tiberius Caesar would say it to a sneezer. At this time, many Romans died from serious illnesses.

This blessing carried the "belief that the more blessings offered to the sufferer may help lessen the chance of death." Also, Pope Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, instituted a prayer for the sneeze in hopes that one would not die, since at the time the plague was spreading and sneezing could foreshadow premature death.

There are other superstitions regarding the sneeze as well.
"Someone told me when I was 12 that your heart skips a beat or stops when you sneeze...so that's why you bless people," senior Odi Bosah said. "So I guess in case it stops beating for good or something."
This myth has also been around for a long time, but is false. According to Tom Wilson, M.D./PhD, Pathology, in the Div. of Molecular Oncology at the Washington University School of Medicine: "Your heart does not stop when you sneeze," he said. "From my perspective, it is hard to even imagine what this would mean. A sneeze itself is really a very brief event, occurring in a shorter time then a heartbeat."

Another common belief was that a sneeze expelled evil spirits.
"I heard that back in the old days, whenever that was, people thought that when you sneezed, you were sneezing out demons," sophomore Cara Britton said. "So they said bless you so [the demons] wouldn't come back."

Many cultures believed this was true. According to Wallis, in Persia, prayer is advised after sneezing. It indicated the victory of the expulsion of the demon within. The Mohammedans believe that "the nose is a dangerous retreat for evil spirits, and when one rises in the morning, he washes out the nose with water, for the devil probably visited during the night."

Answer 2

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.

Other explanations are based on superstitions and urban legends about sneezing and what a sneeze entails. Some well known superstitions that may have contributed to bringing "bless you" into common use are:

The heart stops when you sneeze (it doesn't), and the phrase "bless you" is meant to ensure the return of life or to encourage your heart to continue beating.
A sneeze is the expulsion of some sort of evil, and the phrase is meant to ward off the evil's re-entry.
Your soul can be thrown from your body when you sneeze, and saying "bless you" prevents your soul from being stolen by Satan or some evil spirit. Thus, "bless you" or "God bless you" is used as a sort of shield against evil.
A sneeze is good luck and saying "bless you" is no more than recognition of the sneezer's luckiness.
Alternatively, it may be possible that the phrase began rather uninterestingly as a response for an event that wasn't well understood at the time.

Another urban legend states that you cannot open your eyes while you sneeze, or if you manage to your eyes will pop out. Both of the statements are untrue.

In many English-speaking countries, the German equivalent, gesundheit (which roughly means "good health!"), is proffered after sneezing.

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.

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 (don't tell us; we don't want to know).

There are many superstitions regarding sneezing, some of which you've already listed. But here are some of my favorites.

Sneeze on Monday for health,
Sneeze on Tuesday for wealth,
Sneeze on Wednesday for a letter,
Sneeze on Thursday for something better,
Sneeze on Friday for sorrow,
Sneeze on Saturday, see your sweetheart tomorrow,
Sneeze on Sunday, safety seek.

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a letter
Four for a boy.
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret, never to be told.

Answer 4

Supposedly your heart skips a beat when you sneeze. Whether "bless you" started because of this knowledge I don't know.

Answer 5

It was believed to help keep your soul, that a part of it could escape when you sneezed and blessing it, would stop that from happening.

Or something like that.

Answer 6

It is "God bless you" I think it is because a sneeze stops your heart for that split second

Answer 7

Because you stop breaving when you sneeze and that is where God Bless comes into play

Answer 8

It is just a phrase like auch when you hurt.

Answer 9

That originated during the black plague.When some one sneezed
that believed you were going to die.