"Bless You"

[triplemultiplex]

One of my friends says "Bless You" if you cut a fart.
Very funny.

[texaskdog]

One of my friends says "Bless You" if you cut a fart.
Very funny.

Why do we say bless you when someone sneezes but we get disgusted when someone farts?  Really sneezes are more disgusting.  We should indeed start blessing farts.

[texaskdog]

My mom tends to follow up "bless you" with "double bless you" and "triple bless you" if you keep sneezing. I think when I was really small I got a quadruple-bless-you and was very curious what she was going to say on the fifth one because I didn't know the word that comes after quadruple. But of course, I stopped sneezing at that point, and I guess I didn't just ask her what came next.

Neither me or my wife are religious, so we don't say "bless you" to a sneeze. Most often we don't acknowledge it at all, other than perhaps an "are you all right?" on a multiple-sneeze occurrence.

At my wife's old workplace, there was an instance once where someone was on the phone and another person was in the midst of one of those loud multiple-sneeze occurrences, so the guy on the phone turned and said exasperatedly, "Shut the fuck up!" Everyone else in the office thought this was hilarious, so it became their go-to response when someone sneezed, rather than "bless you".

for the win!

[kphoger]

Why do we say bless you when someone sneezes but we get disgusted when someone farts?  Really sneezes are more disgusting.  We should indeed start blessing farts.

I'm imagining a local priest deciding to bless people's farts one day each year.  And a line of gassy people waiting in line to be blessed.

[texaskdog]

I had a college professor who would absolutely lose it if someone said “bless you” in his class.

Mr Nakasone didn't tolerate yawning.  We all got good at yawn suppression.

[Rothman]

Salud, dinero, amor.

[74/171FAN]

My mom tends to follow up "bless you" with "double bless you" and "triple bless you" if you keep sneezing. I think when I was really small I got a quadruple-bless-you and was very curious what she was going to say on the fifth one because I didn't know the word that comes after quadruple. But of course, I stopped sneezing at that point, and I guess I didn't just ask her what came next.

I say "double Gesundheit" because well German.

[texaskdog]

Why do we say bless you when someone sneezes but we get disgusted when someone farts?  Really sneezes are more disgusting.  We should indeed start blessing farts.

I'm imagining a local priest deciding to bless people's farts one day each year.  And a line of gassy people waiting in line to be blessed.

I think it's that perception that sneezes can't be helped.  But try and hold in a fart once.

[Takumi]

Neither me or my wife are religious, so we don't say "bless you" to a sneeze. Most often we don't acknowledge it at all, other than perhaps an "are you all right?" on a multiple-sneeze occurrence.

Well, I am religious, but I've never thought of saying 'Bless you' after a sneeze to be an actual religious benediction.  I guess, to me, religiosity and saying 'Bless you' after a sneeze don't really correlate.

Same. In high school one of my classmates was an atheist and he would always say "bless you"  after someone sneezed because he thought it was polite.

[Scott5114]

Neither me or my wife are religious, so we don't say "bless you" to a sneeze. Most often we don't acknowledge it at all, other than perhaps an "are you all right?" on a multiple-sneeze occurrence.

Well, I am religious, but I've never thought of saying 'Bless you' after a sneeze to be an actual religious benediction.  I guess, to me, religiosity and saying 'Bless you' after a sneeze don't really correlate.

I don't imagine most religious people do, or at least don't intend for it to be an actual direct request for their deity to intervene. We just kind of had a conversation one day about how unusual saying the phrase "bless you" was when the person both saying and receiving it don't believe there to be a rational being with the ability to issue a blessing to begin with.  We kind of searched around for a suitable secular substitute, and, finding none, just kind of stopped the practice.

[hbelkins]

One of my friends says "Bless You" if you cut a fart.
Very funny.

Why do we say bless you when someone sneezes but we get disgusted when someone farts?  Really sneezes are more disgusting.  We should indeed start blessing farts.

Sneezes typically don't have a terrible smell associated with them. On the other hand, you never know if flatulence is going to be odorless or if it's going to set off pollution control warnings.

[webny99]

Neither me or my wife are religious, so we don't say "bless you" to a sneeze. Most often we don't acknowledge it at all, other than perhaps an "are you all right?" on a multiple-sneeze occurrence.

Well, I am religious, but I've never thought of saying 'Bless you' after a sneeze to be an actual religious benediction.  I guess, to me, religiosity and saying 'Bless you' after a sneeze don't really correlate.

I don't imagine most religious people do, or at least don't intend for it to be an actual direct request for their deity to intervene. ...

To me, it's not so much a matter of religiosity as it is a lack of connectivity between a sneeze and the need for a blessing in the first place.

[Scott5114]

Neither me or my wife are religious, so we don't say "bless you" to a sneeze. Most often we don't acknowledge it at all, other than perhaps an "are you all right?" on a multiple-sneeze occurrence.

Well, I am religious, but I've never thought of saying 'Bless you' after a sneeze to be an actual religious benediction.  I guess, to me, religiosity and saying 'Bless you' after a sneeze don't really correlate.

I don't imagine most religious people do, or at least don't intend for it to be an actual direct request for their deity to intervene. ...

To me, it's not so much a matter of religiosity as it is a lack of connectivity between a sneeze and the need for a blessing in the first place.

The story I heard was that the practice arose during the Plague in Europe, when someone sneezing may have been ill with it, and if they were, death was likely. So saying "bless you" was a hope that they would avoid death, or that if they died that whatever post-death experience they got to have would be pleasant.

By rough analogy, it's like if you heard someone with a dry cough in spring 2020 and said "Hope you can find a ventilator" or something like that.

[webny99]

Dang, that sounds grim. I'll try not to think about that next time I sneeze. (Read: that will be all I think about while sneezing from now on!)

[adventurernumber1]

This is one of those things of which I was never aware of the source of how it originated (until now), and thus had never really thought about it. I am not superstitious in the least, so this was always just of cultural habit.

Now that I think about it, I hardly ever say "bless you," but if someone says it to me I'll always reply "thank you." But I hardly ever say "excuse me" either, not as a matter of rudeness, but it just comes natural to me to not bring attention to the minor myriad bodily occurrences. Having acid reflux, if I said "excuse me" after every time I belched, it would probably get pretty tiresome pretty quickly (both for me and the people having to hear it). I just let it pass, quietly if possible, and don't dwell on it.

Interestingly, "Gesundheit" is actually the only word I know in German, probably since it is so common to hear after sneezes.

I had a college professor who would absolutely lose it if someone said "bless you"  in his class.

Mr Nakasone didn't tolerate yawning.  We all got good at yawn suppression.

I would not fare well in that class. 

Not only am I not good at yawn suppression, but yawns are most often not indicative of whether I'm bored or disengaged - instead, I'm likely just fatigued or sleepy. And with that being very common, I end up yawning quite frequently. 

[Duke87]

Growing up my parents tried really hard to teach me it was polite if someone sneezed to say "god bless you" (all three of those words!). I was always extremely resistant to the idea since it seemed stupid and pointless, and would straight up yell at people for saying it to me.

Eventually as a young adult I begrudgingly got into the habit, usually of saying "gesundheit" in order to avoid any religious implication, in order to try to act normal for the sake of career development and dating.

But now that I'm happily married and in a stable career position, I don't really feel like expending effort trying to pretend I'm normal anymore. So I'm back to mostly just ignoring people when they sneeze, or perhaps if they sneeze repeatedly saying something like "hey knock it off".

[74/171FAN]

But now that I'm happily married and in a stable career position, I don't really feel like expending effort trying to pretend I'm normal anymore. So I'm back to mostly just ignoring people when they sneeze, or perhaps if they sneeze repeatedly saying something like "hey knock it off".

As someone that deals with allergies, I have no issue with being ignored.  I try to have napkins, tissues, or paper towels near me at all times because I expect myself to sneeze (or at least blow my nose) almost daily.

[kphoger]

 

We kind of searched around for a suitable secular substitute

ventilator

[kphoger]

But try and hold in a fart once.

I can't do it.  But my wife can.  Sometimes it "goes back in" and doesn't come out till much later.  I think that's her superpower.

[jmacswimmer]

But try and hold in a fart once.

I can't do it.  But my wife can.  Sometimes it "goes back in" and doesn't come out till much later.  I think that's her superpower.

In the rarest of circumstances where farting would be *extremely* frowned upon socially, I will make the effort to hold one in.  But most of the time I agree with Shrek's thought process: "Better out than in!"

Peter Griffin, however, is quite good at it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-fm8G_734w

[Takumi]

We kind of searched around for a suitable secular substitute

ventilator

Really, "gesundheit"  or "salud"  would work since they mean "health" .

[Roadgeekteen]

Does anyone ever hear bless you for coughing?

[Scott5114]

We kind of searched around for a suitable secular substitute

ventilator

We had the discussion like five years before covid existed. There was a time before covid, as unlikely as it may seem now.

Really, "gesundheit"  or "salud"  would work since they mean "health" .

See, we didn't know that at the time (I don't think "salud" came up at all). Now we've just kind of gotten used to not saying anything, though.

[kphoger]

Does anyone ever hear bless you for coughing?

↓    ↓    ↓    ↓    ↓

I used to say 'Bless you' when people coughed.  I didn't know till about age 20 (or later) that it was only for sneezes.  Such complicated rules of social etiquette...

[kphoger]

We kind of searched around for a suitable secular substitute

ventilator

We had the discussion like five years before covid existed. There was a time before covid, as unlikely as it may seem now.

Well, yes, I assumed so.  I just meant that maybe your search is over.  You've found your secular substitute.