2006-12-06 11:31:19 · 9 answers · asked by princesslola4u 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
When the plague was an epidemic in the middle ages one of the symptoms was sneezing, so when one would sneezed christians would say God bless, in order for God to bless the person and save them from the plague. Then the pope announced it as a pious saying too keep people safe from the plague and everyone started saying the phrase.
Also as the other people say people believed your soul would escape if you sneezed so they'd say that to stop the soul.
2006-12-06 11:38:39 · answer #1 · answered by STAR POWER=) 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was told at one time- that when you sneeze your heart stops for that second or however long you sneeze and saying, "God Bless You" was a way of saying that God was looking over you since your heart stopped. not sure if that is true though.
2006-12-06 19:40:10 · answer #2 · answered by Lillary 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is because whenever you sneeze your heart stops for a few seconds, and back then they believed that some people died from that, so they began to say "God Bless You"
2006-12-06 19:56:44 · answer #3 · answered by justin3067 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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.
(The heart was believed to momentarily stop during a sneeze (it doesn't), thus the "Bless you!" was uttered either as a supplication for life to return or as a congratulation upon its successful restart.)
2006-12-06 20:22:15 · answer #4 · answered by mia 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was believed that your soul exited your body when you sneezed; so "god bless you" was a way of preventing a demon from entering your body before your own soul could get back in.
2006-12-06 19:38:17 · answer #5 · answered by sara_pk1 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
people used to believe that when you sneezed, the devil was coming for you, so that's where "god bless you" came from.
2006-12-06 19:35:47 · answer #6 · answered by L-cee 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
people thought that when you sneezed your soul flew out your nose, and saying God bless you was supposed to prevent it from flying away making room for demon to enter your body
2006-12-06 19:38:57 · answer #7 · answered by Kain 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because your heart stops for a moment when you sneeze.
2006-12-06 19:39:04 · answer #8 · answered by Ceajae 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
people used to think that when you sneezed you were relasing evil spirits so they would bless them for it and it just caught on as a polite thing to do.
2006-12-06 19:39:53 · answer #9 · answered by »-(¯`v´¯)--»CHELSEA«- 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋