The
expression “God bless you,” or
sometimes just “bless you,” is
commonly said to people after they sneeze. As with many sayings, its exact
origin is unclear. It’s thought that the saying originally served as a literal
blessing. On his accession to the papacy in AD 590, at the outbreak of the
bubonic plague, Pope Gregory the Great, ordered his priests and subjects to
look toward God for help and guidance during the troubled times. Sneezing was
thought to be a sign that someone might be about to contract the plague, so the
Catholic Church exhorted its followers to say “God bless you” to ward off the
disease.
Another
common theory of the origin of the phrase is the early belief that the act of
sneezing would expel the person’s soul from his or her body. “God bless you”
was thus said to protect the unguarded soul from the devil until the person’s
body regained it.
Similarly,
in the Middle Ages it was thought by
some that a sneeze was the expulsion of an evil spirit from the body, and so
after a sneeze the person was blessed in the hope that the evil spirit would be
prevented from returning.
A further
explanation lies in the ancient belief that the heart stopped briefly when a
person sneezed, and so the blessing was made in an attempt to restore life to
the person It’s likely that one of the origins listed above brought about the
custom, which has continued through the ages and is now present in many
languages and cultures. But does the heart really stop when you sneeze? Please
watch out for this space for more info. Thanks!