where did the phrase " god bless you "come from? and why?

Answer 1

The belief was that when you sneezed your soul momentarily left your body, and while it was absent a demon could take it's place and possess you. By saying "God Bless You", concerned witnesses believed they were rendering your body safe from demonic possession until your soul could return.

Answer 2

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.

Conversely, the sneeze itself was the expulsion of a demon or evil spirit which had taken up residence in a person. Therefore, although the "Bless you!" was again a protective charm meant to protect the sneezer from evil, in this version it was meant to ward off the re-entry of an evil spirit which a tormented soul had just rid itself of.

another explanation is 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.

Answer 3

Back when the black death was everywhere, people who would cough or sneeze in the streets (the first signs of the plague) people would cover their mouth and say "May God bless you" so when/if you die you go to heaven. Nowadays we just say "God bless you" because it's cute to do what they did "back in ye olden days"

answer sidenote: this era is also where "ring around the rosey" came from because when you died of the plague, they would burn your body as to prevent the disease from spreading.

Answer 4

It may have started as literal blessing during the rise of the bubonic plague. Pope Gregory I ordered processions, litanies, and unending prayers for an end to the plague. When someone sneezed (thought of as the onset of the plague), they were immediately blessed in hopes they wouldn't develop the disease.

Answer 5

You have to understand that the words breath, spirit and soul are all related in the ancient languages. When one sneezes the ancients believed that the soul (or spirit) was vacating the body so a blessing was in order to keep the body & soul intact.

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Answer 6

The original reason (or so I've been told) is that when you sneeze, that is your soul trying to escape from your body. By saying "God bless you", you appease the escaping spirit - and it returns to it's host body. Check the link below for a more thourough explanation...

Answer 7

I was always led to believe it came from the London Black Plague. When some sneezed people thought they were a 'gonna so blessed them.

Answer 8

it prolly started with Jesus, and because... ppl need blessed and from what we know God is the creater of the world and stuff so he can like fix things that are broke and such...