How/why did saying things like bless you or gesundheit start? And when?
Off the top of my head, I think something in traditional European beliefs said that the soul was at risk of flying out of the nose when one sneezed. Hence people would say “bless you” in case you died and were at risk of otherwise falling into hell.
(Edit:) This vaguely supports my memory: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_bless_you#Origins_and_legends
And why not farts
My girlfriend says “bless you” whenever I fart
bless her
She sounds like a keeper
Be the change
This guy I worked with used to say, “What happened?”. He would always feign concern for the farter.
I say bless you normally for sneezes and sarcastically for everything else. Farts, hiccups, burps etc. Peak comedy I know
Because the onus is on the farter to say something courteous. Because we, for some reason, decided that a involuntary, natural bodily function is rude.
involuntary
Speak for yourself
Well now I do
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“I hope you didn’t just shit yourself on my couch. 😐”
🤣
I don’t know, but I wish it’d stop.
I use the German word Gesundheit. It means health. I will offer it for most audible bodily functions, though, not just sneezes.
That’s funny.
I use it for all of those, but also if someone uses or words I don’t understand or if they bite their tongue or anything similar. I successfully managed to confuse a lot of people doing that and it brings me great joy.
It’s hard to say when it began, but it’s a nearly worldwide tradition. Check out this page of different salutations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_to_sneezing
My belief is that it’s generally because sneezing in a sign of illness, and illness tended to be more dangerous centuries ago, before antibiotics and when many people had less access to nutrition, consistent heating, sanitation and so forth.You can say “Godzilla” if you want to
It’s because the demons fly out of you when you sneeze, and you need to be blessed to prevent them from getting back in, or so they thought back in Black Plague days.
Also those are the only two I actually know, so I’d love to learn others
@Wollang Yarhamkallah.
God bless you mother fucker
People are not a fan of gifs here huh? Note taken
@PrettyBlackDress Dankeschoen you kind fucker!
🤣
