Where is the origin of the phrase (God Bless You) when people sneeze. Also what is the reasoning behind it?

Answer 1

Bless you is a common English expression used to wish a person well after sneezing.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Origins
* 2 Superstition
* 3 Modern use
* 4 References

[edit] Origins

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.

[edit] Superstition

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. Due to this some people believe that it is unlucky to say thank you, as this allows the evil to return.
* 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 simply 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.

Answer 2

Sneezing was dreaded by everyone before 1920 as it is a common sypmtom to flu. You may have heard of the spanish flu... it killed about 50 million to 100 million people worldwide in just 18 months! Flu was the #1 dreaded disease since the vaccine was not found at that point.

So whenever someone sneezed, people said 'God bless you', hoping that the person does not has flu or/and does not die.

Answer 3

I dont know the origin but I think the reason is because when u sneeze ur heart stops so many seconds and when some1 says God Bless You He does really Bless u. I have a question can any1 give me a sight to where I can find words from scrambled letters like scrabble or qwerty.

Answer 4

I suppose in the old old days if you sneezed you had an infection and could die, so by saying God Bless You it's like, I hope you get to heaven, or I hope God blesses you with health I guess.

Answer 5

What i've got heard takes a number of those solutions one step further (it quite is actual leveraged from the great Idiots instruction manual to gaining know-how of Yiddish). Sneezing replaced into needless to say not an first rate reason for death, the term Gesundheit, used following a sneeze in historical instances, replaced into additionally the final utterance in the previous burial (or conceal up with a sheet) after somebody deceased. it is to not say the sneeze replaced into the main suitable gasp, yet that aforementioned e book references Gesundheit as a parting word to a minimum of one departing the area of the residing. needless to say, if it quite is actual, this word has conveyed and saved which potential (although if one sneezes, the which potential is a few distance diverse in terms of what's declared in English vs. what it meant initially). it quite is an fairly thrilling subject remember a minimum of i think of so :)

Answer 6

At one time people believed a man's soul could be inadvertently thrust from his body by an explosive sneeze, thus "Bless you!" was a protective oath uttered to safeguard the temporarily expelled and vulnerable soul from being snatched up by Satan (who was always lurking nearby). The purpose of the oath was to cast a temporary shield over the flung-out soul which would protect it just long enough to regain the protection of the corporeal body.

Answer 7

In the middle ages they figured out your heart skipped a beat when you sneeze, they felt a demon could indwell you at that time,, as they thought you were not alive for that moment,, so they coined the phrase as a defense. true.

Answer 8

in my opinion it comes from back in the depression when the plagues and viruses like a cold where deadly. it only makes sense to say god bless you back in that time frame.

Answer 9

I think that in the old days people used to think that when you sneezed your soul would try to escape, so when they said god bless you, they thought that it stoped you losing your soul.

Answer 10

They used to believe that when you sneezed you were casting out/releasing demons....hence why they said 'God bless you'