Why do people say bless you when you sneez?

Answer 1

It was originally god bless you and came from the time of the plague, where sneezing was one of the symptoms, as shown in the plague based nursery rhyme "Ring a ring of roses"

Answer 2

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.


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. A sneeze takes place in a shorter ammount of time than a heartbeat and also the heart beats because a small part of it called the SA node has a "pacemaker" activity. What this means is that there is a type of electrical cycle going on that triggers beats roughly once every second. Neither sneezing, nor any other normal bodily activity, can change this electrical cycle, so the heart keeps beating.), 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. Eat it TJ
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 3

Many Many years ago before we were around people used to believe that sneezing caused your soul to leave your body. Saying bless you comes from trying to keep that from happening. At least that's about how I understand it.

Answer 4

From the way I've been told when you sneeze the devil is trying to steal your soul or your soul is trying to get away and by saying bless you it puts it back in or scares off the devil.


Now in reality people just say it because it's the nice thing to do :)

Answer 5

There are a lot of different myths about why people say it. Some say it came about because people used to sneeze before they died of the flu or diseases. Or because when you sneeze your heart skips a beat so people say "god bless your heart". I don't know which one is true though.

Answer 6

It actually started back with Pope Gregory I, back then they had a plague going around... So as with the onset of the pague you started sneezing first so he called upon his belief in god and whenever someone would sneez, he would bless them

Answer 7

In the old days many believed that harmful spirits caused you to sneeze. They thought saying bless you would rid you of these spirits.

Answer 8

In ancient times, people thought that a sneeze was an evil spirit leaving your body so they said "God Bless You" to keep the evil spirit away.

Answer 9

Its a superstition. They used to believe in midevil times that a devil jumped in you when you sneezed. So people would try and counteract it by saying bless you!

Answer 10

A old religious practice was that when a person sneeze it was a demond coming out of you and that's why the God bless you came in.