"Bless You"

[hbelkins]

Did anyone else grow up in a family where they did NOT say "bless you" after someone sneezes?

My family didn't make a habit of saying "bless you" after a sneeze. My wife's family,however, did. A quarter-century later, it's still one of the hardest adjustments for me to get used to having to say "bless you," or hearing it said, after a sneeze. Plus, when someone blesses you after a sneeze, it's responded to by "thank you."

So if my wife sneezes, I feel compelled to say "bless you," and then she will say, "thank you." Or if I sneeze and she blesses me, I feel obligated to thank her.

I understand the superstition behind it -- people believed that a sneeze forcibly expelled your soul from your body and saying "bless you" returned your soul to you -- but I'm not superstitious in the least. I've called it "stupid-stitious" for years because I just never got being superstitious or ritualistic about things like throwing salt over your shoulder if you spill some, entering from the same door you leave from, not walking under ladders, and so on.

Anyone else not superstitious in general, or not accustomed to saying "bless you" after a sneeze?

[Max Rockatansky]

I ask my wife if she is "okay"  to get her riled up when she sneezes.  She greatly prefers I say "bless you."

My Mom would occasionally use it growing up but never my Dad. 

[Roadgeekteen]

Everyone I know says that.

[Rothman]

Nope.  Didn't say it.  Don't say it now.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Mom's family doesn't (which I followed), dad's family does.

[Ned Weasel]

On my dad's side of the family, it was usually "Gesundheit."

[SectorZ]

I'm not superstitious or religious, yet I say "bless you" to anyone who sneezes.

It's more cultural tradition than anything.

[qguy]

We didn't/don't say "bless you." At the risk of splitting hairs, the members of the family in which I grew up, and my own family today, all say "God bless you."

[JoePCool14]

I've always said "bless you", though some of the people I spend time with say "God bless you" because I hang around quite a few religious people. I've never understood the significance of it, just seems like cultural tradition at this point. I should ask them one day.

[Takumi]

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

[JayhawkCO]

I've always said "bless you", though some of the people I spend time with say "God bless you" because I hang around quite a few religious people. I've never understood the significance of it, just seems like cultural tradition at this point. I should ask them one day.

If you want to go old school, it comes from the times of the plague where if you sneezed, people assumed you might get sick and die and so they said "God bless you" to hope to have your soul saved.  I have always said "bless you" more out of habit than anything else. 

Chris

[kphoger]

On my dad's side of the family, it was usually "Gesundheit."

That's what I grew up with.  My paternal grandfather could speak a sort of pig-German, being a second-generation German American, and Gesundheit is about the only thing that made it all the way into my growing-up years.

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

That sounds like a person who seriously needs to get a grip.

[frankenroad]

In our family, it was always "Gesundheit".   Now, I tend to say "Bless You" when someone sneezes (as my co-worker did about 15 minutes ago).

[GaryV]

My family never did.  I don't think we ever did with our kids.

But for some reason my wife has picked it up in the last 10 or 20 years.

[Mr_Northside]

I don't really bother saying it when someone else sneezes, as I think it's a dumb custom..... however if someone says it to me when I sneeze, I'll give them a thank you or some acknowledgement.

[SSOWorld]

Need a mop?

[kphoger]

I don't really bother saying it when someone else sneezes, as I think it's a dumb custom.....

Do you also not bother saying "excuse me" when you sneeze?  Because that's just as dumb a custom.  But I do it anyway.

[74/171FAN]

In our family, it was always "Gesundheit".   Now, I tend to say "Bless You" when someone sneezes (as my co-worker did about 15 minutes ago).

It was also "Gesundheit" in my German class back in high school (for obvious reasons).

[Ned Weasel]

Do you also not bother saying "excuse me" when you sneeze?  Because that's just as dumb a custom.  But I do it anyway.

I do that, because I feel like sneezing is kind of loud and gross, especially when I do it.

[SSOWorld]

I don't really bother saying it when someone else sneezes, as I think it's a dumb custom.....

Do you also not bother saying "excuse me" when you sneeze?  Because that's just as dumb a custom.  But I do it anyway.

Do you say "excuse me" when you belch? or fart?

[Mr_Northside]

I don't really bother saying it when someone else sneezes, as I think it's a dumb custom.....

Do you also not bother saying "excuse me" when you sneeze?  Because that's just as dumb a custom.  But I do it anyway.

Do you say "excuse me" when you belch? or fart?

Kind of depends on the social situation (and if I think I can "get away with it).

[kphoger]

–  *fart*  Excuse me.
–  What for?
–  Oh.  Uhhhhhhhh...  Nothing?

[kphoger]

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...

[Scott5114]

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".

[kphoger]

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.

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.

[...]

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".

My dad has loud sneezes, and he nearly always sneezes in triplicate.  So, if there's conversation going on at the time, you may as well just stop till after the third one.