After hearing a person sneeze why do we say "Bless You".?

Question

Is this not a pagan belief that one was loosing his soul via the sneeze and that saying "God bless you" would save your soul from escaping? If this is true, why do some Christans use this phrase and some become irrate if no one says it after they sneeze.

Answer 1

You are correct. It's a holdover from the ancient Roman belief that a portion of the soul escapes during a sneeze.

Answer 2

Well, that's a very interesting question you got there. From what i know, we say 'bless you ' when a person sneezes because it is believed that when a person sneezes, the evil stuff will come out and therefore we say 'bless you' to in other words congratulated the person and wish that the evil stuff will stay away.

Answer 3

Some people said that your heart stops beating after you sneeze so saying God Bless You makes it start beating again

Answer 4

I heard this from my Mom and I think it makes sense. Years ago, before antibiotics, if you sneezed it could be the start of a major illness. People said God Bless You as a way of saying that they hope you don't have something serious.

Answer 5

It bares the same origins as the nursery rhyme "Ring a ring of roses" - the Black Death, one of the symptoms of which were respiratory problems (including sneezing).

Basically the pope at the time said that anyone who sneezed should be blessed by others nearby in hopes that they hadn't caught the plague. After so many years in use it just stuck.

Answer 6

Nowdays people just feel it's the polite thing to do. I doubt anyone actually feels they are in danger of losing their soul during the course of a sneeze. If someone becomes angry that no one blessed them, then they just don't feel that they are cared about. You could always switch to the German version "gesundheit," which I belive means more generally "good health to you."

Answer 7

It was believed in medieval times that sneezing opened you up to invasion by evil spirits who will steal your soul. And the Christians do that because over the years it has jut become common courtesy, and that is why people are sometimes offended when it is not said.

Answer 8

Ive never known someone who gets annoyed if people don't say it. that's just kinda stupid...

I'm not sure exactly why we still say it, but, I think its what I call a "filler" people always feel the need to fill the air with noise. everyone does it. its like after someone says a sentence, and you don't really have a full response to it, you'll say something like "nice..." or "cool" just to let the person know that you acknowledge them (if you don't believe me, experiment with it, when someone says something, don't say anything back... its weird) when someone sneezes, its kind of an awkward moment, and when someone says bless you, it kinda takes away from that "someone just made a really weird noise" thing.

my mom used to say "bless me" whenever she'd sneeze, and now she's got me doing it =D

Answer 9

In the old days, ppl thought the demons or evil spirits were trying to escape and any interactions with evil spirits required a blessing from God.

Answer 10

So, you know the history and don't need it to be explained to you. Over time it has just become a kind of term of affection or at least something friendly to say. I might say it myself but not necessarily every time and who really gets irate if you don't say it unless they have some personal problem - it's voluntary.

Usually, it is just 'bless you'. It is rare to hear God being asked to do it.