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12月13日 Something to sneeze at.We are all too familiar with the process. When it happens, it's as if our head is putting on a street performance and all other parts of our body take notice and crowd around to see what's going on. Yes, a sneeze has the amazing ability to stop all other activity while our head performs a delicate dance of muscle contractions and saliva spraying. And there's usually an encore. Sometimes more. If we do enough repeat performances, other entire bodies take notice and stop to watch. I'm sure if you got past 10 people would actually start chanting and clapping with each successive sneeze.
After our fit of spit and whatever other particles and liquid we've unconsciously felt we needed to shake around in our bodies has come to a close and we successfully gathered ourselves together, we're usually presented with a seemingly instinctive "bless you" or some variation. What does this mean? Does a mostly involuntary function of our bodies really put us in line for some type of religious consecration?
Let's look at a few of the explanations dealing with the origin of "bless you" to see if we can find some understanding to this reactionary reply.
Many people will point to Pope Gregory I as the original "Bless you" sayer. In an effort to combat the Black Plague that was going around at the time, he encouraged an increase of prayer and chanting. Sneezing was thought to be an early sign of one's having the plague, so saying "God bless you" was a way to prevent the plague from progressing.
Your heart stops temporarily when you sneeze. This untruth (the heart might skip a beat at best) has been compounded with a couple different extensions. One is that saying "bless you" allows your heart to start back up; another goes with the belief that your heart already returns to normal and saying "bless you" is merely confirmation that you have been blessed by having your heart start beating again. Another states that this stoppage of heart allows time for the Devil to enter. Apparently, it's much easier for Satan to enter into a temporarily stopped heart than one beating normally. An audible "bless you" seems to be enough to stop this powerful spirit creature, thankfully.
Some say that when you sneeze, your "soul" leaves your body. "Bless you" ensures the safe return of said "soul". Hopefully it hasn't gotten too far that it forgets which body it was fired out from.
A similar explanation says that the sneeze expels an evil spirit living inside you. Telling a sneezer "Bless you" would prevent that now homeless parasitic demon from re-entering their body.
Another suggestion is that a sneeze is a good omen that God will answer your prayers. Saying "bless you" in this sense is simply a way of making sure the sneezer gets his blessing.
The fact of the matter is this: There is no clear evidence that gives us a solid explanation as to why people say "bless you". The earliest writings that talked about sneezing and blessings never got into any detail as to why "bless you" is said. What we can conclude is that it wasn't important enough to be documented. Following this line of logic, we can rightfully conclude that the proposed origins/explanations are unfounded and not at all true. I mean, stoppage of the heart and dealings with angels and demons and former angels would seem to be pretty serious.
So from what we've learned, saying "bless you" after somebody sneezes is likely nothing more than a superstitious ritual disguised as politeness. People are raised to say "thank you" and "please" and "your welcome", as well as "bless you". Do you say "bless you" or some variant? Why do you do it? Perhaps it's because you've always done that and that's how you were raised. Or it just seems to be the polite thing to do. Either way, I'm going to safely assume most people aren't seriously thinking about saving your "soul" or preventing the plague or restarting your heart. The response is as involuntary as the sneeze nowadays.
How did something so questionably superstitious and mysterious work it's way into the category of manners? We all know there are no pieces of our soul flying out of our noses. We all know a sneeze isn't Phase 1 of the Black Plague. And we all know that saying "bless you" does nothing but merely acknowledge a sneezer's existence.
I don't say "bless you" when someone sneezes. I say nothing. I've gotten looks from sneezers for my silence. As if I'm the one dropping the ball there. Joe Schmo breathes a bunch of dust and tiny particles through his nasal passage, causing a chain reaction which results in him emitting a violent spray of tiny droplets from his face. I just can't see how it is polite to ask for God's blessing on such activity. What is said when someone coughs? Nothing. Why don't we do it for other bodily functions? Let's make a grain offering every time somebody's stomach growls! Hiccups? Blinking? Muscle spasm? Why can't we turn these things into causes for obligatory response?
My point is, even though most people will acknowledge the superstitions behind saying "bless you", continuing to say it under the guise of politeness is still too much. Reacting to something like that with a statement (which we have little idea of the origin of) only shows our ability at simple recognition and response. A robot could do that. There's other, more fitting ways to show we're polite. Break the mold and show you're a logical, reasoning person who isn't controlled by silly superstitions-- next time someone sneezes, and you honestly don't believe their life is in danger lest you utter the magic holy words, say nothing.
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