Arvin will unexpectedly ask some questions that I can't answer sometimes and need to think about it. I sometimes have to ask somebody and have to get back to him for the answer. Recently, he asked me why people response, 'bless you' if someone sneezes. Then I came to realized and asked myself the same question.

Have to asked hubby about this. And his reply was, in the earlier times, plague was a deadly infectious desease, a lot of people died from this. And one of the symptoms of this pandemic infection is sneezing, and people would say this in hope that the person who sneezed would not actually develop the disease.

True or not true? I googled it too and found this theory as one of the origin of 'bless you' response, but there are still a lot of explaination on why people say 'bless you' after you sneezed

a smart niece of mine sitting beside me right now as i'm reading this post is mumbling that saying "bless you" when someone sneezes is because you wish a bad spirit roaming around would come out from that someone who was sneezing! well at least, that was what she as taught by her grandpa! haha! funny but that' what she really believes! hehe..

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.

Another possible source for "bless you" (which comes out sounding as "blesh-yu" when pronounced quickly)is that it rhymed with "achoo" or "ashoo", and at the same time it had a pleasant meaning. A few other languages and local dialects have similar rhyming expressions. As an example, in the city of Mashhad, located in northeast section of Iran, a sneeze sounded like "hapishi!" and a common rhyming response to it was "pir shi!" which literally meant "get old", implying a prayer for long life.

[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 belief that the heart stops when you sneeze, and the phrase "bless you" is meant to ensure the return of life or to encourage your heart to continue beating. (Of course, the heart beats because of electrical pulses that are not affected by normal functions like sneezing.)
* 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 under

Mao tingali gyud na sya Len, "God Bless You" para dli ta mataptan og sakit gyud dli mo develop. Same here.

i'm sorry guys but i jus am not a superstitious believer. the heart by average has 70 beats per minute so it beats every 1 point something seconds. and everytime you sneeze, a single achooo won't take more than a second, but less. u can see and record it for ur self. therefore, a heart doesn't stop beating when one is sneezing! medically, sneezing is releasing some dirty air, or sometimes cause by allergy, thus, there are allergy medicine out there! waaah.. just my humble opinion!