Interested in all answers even mean ones. Any doctors with the answer too.
2006-10-15 01:46:07 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
People relate sneezing to being sick. They always have. Back in the day they said blessings to make the sick well. It has carried on since then as a way to acknowledge someones uncontrollable condition as a courtesy.
2006-10-15 01:54:19 · answer #1 · answered by jerod_gavel 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the 20's and 30's people would get typhoid very easily and others would say god bless you because it was a sign that they were going to die when they began sneezing. It was the first symptom of the sickness.
2006-10-15 01:49:26 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Amazing-all those answers and no one knew the real origin. Sneezing was one of the first symptoms of the Black death (plague} so when one sneezed during the Middle ages it was customary to say to them God bless you, in the hope it would prevent them developing the plague.
2006-10-15 01:57:50 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, it meant God bless ME!
Sneezing 3 times was considerd bad luck. So they hoped
blessing them would keep them from sneezing any more.
2006-10-15 01:52:08 · answer #4 · answered by Medicine Eddie 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At the time, those many years ago, a person who sneezed was almost certainly coming down with a sickness that would kill them. So, it started as a hope that God would watch out for that person and they would recover. Just a habit that continues.
2006-10-15 01:50:26 · answer #5 · answered by auld mom 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was told that in the old days that when you sneezed you exhaled your soul then one would say God Bless You so that evil spirits would not come into your soul when you inhaled
2006-10-15 01:58:56 · answer #6 · answered by Bella Donna 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Moira Smith, librarian at the Folklore Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A., says of the expression: “It comes from the idea that you are sneezing out your soul.” To say “God bless” is, in effect, asking God to restore it.
So it is rooted in superstition.
Hannah
2006-10-15 01:48:45 · answer #7 · answered by Hannah J Paul 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Influenza was a major killer in the Middle Ages when conditions were drafty and damp. If you sneezed, it could be the first sign that you had it and could die. Therefore, people bagan (in this very religious era) to say that as a charm to protect you.
2006-10-15 01:48:44 · answer #8 · answered by Isis 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It the old days people believed that if u sneezed a bad spirit left your body..
2006-10-15 01:49:48 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Im an Atheist and I still say it .
It was instilled in my brain as a child . I do it out of habit and reflex.
I don`t believe in god ,yet through brainwashing i still react with this response .
Its kind of funny though ,I say it ,but it means nothing to me .
2006-10-15 01:56:49 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋