“Bless You”

 

                         “Bless You”

 Why are these words spoken?

-Is a common English expression, used to wish a person blessings in various situations, especially as a response to a sneeze, and also, when parting or writing a valediction.

When did this saying originate?

-This saying originated back when the bubonic plague was a huge problem in AD77.

How did this saying originate?

-Some have offered an explanation suggesting that people once held the folk belief that a person's soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed, that sneezing otherwise opened the body to invasion by the Devil or evil spirits, or that sneezing was the body's effort to force out an invading evil presence. In these cases, "God bless you" or "bless you" is used as a sort of shield against evil. The Irish Folk story "Master and Man" by Thomas Crofton Croker, collected byWilliam Butler Yeats, describes this variation.^[ Moreover, in the past some people may have thought that the heart stops beating during a sneeze, and that the phrase "God bless you" encourages the heart to continue beating.

Where did this saying originate?

-This saying originated in ancient Rome.