What Happens If You Don’t Respond to Someone’s Sneeze?

I like to say “Good One” when they sneeze the first time. Any further sneezes get “that’s enough now” in a totally sarcastic tone 😉

One night at the bookstore my co-worker andI were talking and the question came up: if you say ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes, what do you say when they cough.

My co-worker thought for a while before she finally said: ” you should say ‘stop it’.”

So, now when someone coughs, I say ‘stop it’. not in a demanding way, but in the same tone of voice you’d use for ‘bless you’.

The real question is, how is that woman going to get her soul back in her body now that she’s sneezed it out?!

I once instinctively said “Bless you” to a girl who sneezed, to which she replied, “I’m already blessed.” Stuck with gesundheit after that.

I draw on my Jewish background here and use the Yiddish, “tz’gezunt” which means, “Be healthy!”

But I REALLY want to know WTF that loony thinks “…will happen if you don’t bless someone when they sneeze.” Their ass will fall off?

I trained myself out of the habit of saying “bless you” and say “gesundheit” instead because people at least recognize what that means. My husband says “knock it off” or “I’m a douche” (because he feels like he should say something but isn’t going to bless anyone and doesn’t speak German).
I usually do say something when someone sneezes, but I never, ever bless anyone. If someone blesses me, I ignore it unless they’re making a big deal about it and putting the emphasis on the “bless” (some kids of my friends do this when I burp, too) and then I say, “that’s not necessary.”

Now I just have to stop using religious expletives…

Personally, I always get in a pre-emptive apology if I sneeze near to someone. Same as when I have to cough.

Living in the most godless part of the UK, I can’t remember the last time someone used “Bless You” in a non-ironic fashion. Most of the time people just ask if you’ve got a cold or need a tissue.

I always say “bless you”.

It’s short for “I bless you”. I figure it’s just as safe a bet as any god, and it seems to keep people happy.

I never say “god bless you” and I’m still trying to think of a good comment when people say it to me.

I don’t say anything except for “Cover your mouth! Germs just went flying everywhere!”

Why do people say, “God bless you,” after someone sneezes?

There are varying accounts as to the origin of this response. One belief is that it originated in Rome when the bubonic plague was raging through Europe. One of the symptoms of the plague was coughing and sneezing, and it is believed that Pope Gregory VII suggested saying “God bless you” after a person sneezed in hopes that this prayer would protect them from an otherwise certain death.

The expression may have also originated from superstition. Some people believe that the custom of asking for God’s blessing began when ancient man thought that the soul was in the form of air and resided in the body’s head. A sneeze, therefore, might accidentally expel the spirit from the body unless God blessed you and prevented this from occurring. Some ancient cultures also thought that sneezing forced evil spirits out of the body endangering others because these spirits might now enter their bodies. The blessing was bestowed to protect both the person sneezed and others around him.

VIA: http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/sneeze.html

I always say excuse me when I sneeze before anyone has a chance to say anything to me. The most annoying is when you sneeze more than twice in a row and everyone around you says bless you after each sneeze.

I’m going to use the “I’d rather have a tissue” line from now on…Thanks!

The origin of “Bless you” is, I believe, from the time of the plague, when a sneeze could indicate that you were well and truly screwed, and hence a blessing would be a good thing.

I personally tend to say “Nice sneeze” as a mark of sneeze recognition.

I had a friend who could only ever sneeze in groups of >6ish. In a Maths lecture he let off about 8 in a row, to which the lecturer exclaimed “My God! Someone’s deflating!”. Best sneeze response ever, IMO.

Some other suggestions:

“Wow. Is your head still attached to the rest of you?”

“Ugh. I heard the plague was making a comeback.”

“Thank you, sir, may I have another?”

“Damn you!”

No. I always say “bless you” or “gesundheit” or “i sveikata” (Lithuanian for “to your health”)….

I want to know what happens, really, because here we don’t say anything like a blessing so it must have been happening to us for a long time, but WHAT?

the funny thing is she is “Christian” yet she talks to people like that. I say bless you only out of habit but I’ve been trying to refrain from saying anything.

I always say “a tes souhaits” (ahh-teh-sway) which I learned in French class years ago. It means, roughly, “good wishes to you”. Most people haven’t heard that phrase, so it makes for good conversation.

I had no idea there were so many awesome choices before me. Just had a brief conversation about this at my own blog (Friendly Humanist).

I try to ignore when people say anything to me after I sneeze, unless it would be quite obvious that I was simply ignoring them, in which case I will just say, “Thanks.”

My ex-girlfriend, a nominal Christian, was really bothered that I didn’t say anything when she sneezed. She thought it was rude; I wonder why anyone cares. It’s just a fucking sneeze! I finally caved and started saying, “Salud” when she sneezed. (Spanish for ‘health’.)

¡SALUD!

Means “health” but you say it both as a response to a sneeze and as a toast (like “cheers”).

I’ve learned over the years that a lot of religious people think “gesundheit” is German for “god bless you.” It actually means “healthiness.”

Before I started regularly taking meds for my allergies, I used to fairly often have bad sneezing fits. When a friend was around it would go like this:
me: *sneeze*
them: Bless you.
me: *sneeze*
them: Bless you.
(*lather, rinse, repeat*)
So, I drew from this the conclusion that I am allergic to “bless you” and started replying by telling them “stop saying ‘bless you’, I’m allergic to it!” Which got interesting reactions.

Oh and incidentally… I used to work for a consultancy that advised on proper call center management. It’s wrong that the customer service rep (CSR) should have to deal with a woman like that. There are two proper ways to advise a CSR to deal with a nasty screaming swearing person like that. The moment the caller becomes personally abusive (as opposed to just upset about a problem), the CSR should be empowered to either:

1) Say “I’m sorry, let me get you a manager,” and transfer them to one. (The manager should tell the caller that their behavior is unacceptable and the company will be delighted to do business with them as soon as they’re prepared to behave in a civilized manner.) Or,

2) Hang up at once. If the caller calls back and gets the same CSR and demands to know what happened, the CSR may tell them “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened, we must have gotten disconnected”… and the CSR may “accidentally” disconnect the call every time the caller becomes abusive until the caller takes the hint.

The important part is, you don’t need a customer that abusive, and it does a world of good for the CSR’s productivity for them to know that their employer has empowered them not to have to put up with abuse.

“DON’T YOU REALIZE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DON’T BLESS SOMEONE WHEN THEY SNEEZE?”

Not a bleeping thing.

Oh, I stand corrected. People with nutty ideas will get bent out of shape if you don’t fall over yourself to “bless” them when they sneeze.

Why is it they don’t expect the same treatment when they pass air through other orifices?

My brother has started saying “Sorry you sneezed!” Emphasis is his.

When someone sneezes especially vigourously, my father usually says “there’s no need to get violent.” It’s funny the first time. Not so much after that.

I think the CSR should have transferred her to disconnect! If someone blesses me when I sneeze, I generally say, “no, thank you” or “that’s not really necessary”. Strangers don’t know how to take it and friends think it’s just me being funny. When they ask, I explain, but I’m not going to preach to ’em!

Guy G said…”The origin of “Bless you” is, I believe, from the time of the plague, when a sneeze could indicate that you were well and truly screwed, and hence a blessing would be a good thing.”

Sounds more like a pronouncement of doom, since there was nothing (like a god or such)that was going to ‘bless’ the person with the sneeze…and so apparently the plague. How hollow is that…”yikes you have a deadly plague…god bless you.”

Makes my comeback…”If your god were all he is cracked up to be, there would not be a need for the blessing.”

Of course, this was a time period where people did not understand the germ theory and so they can be forgiven, somewhat, for having built superstitions around it. Sadly, people have a hard time letting go of traditions that come about this way…and will hang onto them long after the real issues are understood and the need for the superstition defeated.

Personally I have always thought it odd to be overly concerned with other people’s bodily functions. If I think they are in need, I may ask if they are OK, or if they need a tissue…especially if they just let fly all over me.

Silly superstition…just like whistling past the graveyard.

Ashley…in the broad scope of things, which is worse to say:

You are going to hell

or

F*ck You

I would say condemning someone to hell, going by intent. Of course there is no hell…but there will be no copulation invloved with the F-U either…so you have to look at intent.

I have been told I am going to hell by many many christians, usually because I do not believe something they do. I have also been told how bad I am for saying F-U…usually by those same people.

Needless to say, me and those people do not see eye to eye. F-them. (Hey, they were thinking that I am boound to hell as they read this!)

I don’t say a god damned thing when someone I don’t know sneezes; but my friends usually earn a “curse you!”

When people bless me after a sneeze, I usually say “no thanks!” (although, “no, thanks!” is probably more grammatically correct…)

I heard an odd fable-myth-cute story..
If you sneeze 3 times in a row with someone ‘blessing you’ that a troll (of the opposite sex although most say they look the same) appears and takes you back to faery-land to be its slave/mate. Thus living in a missurable hole.

So when a person sneezes I don’t say anything until they look at me and I tell them I’m waiting for the 3rd sneeze so I can meet the troll.

Post-sneeze blessings are cross-cultural. I doubt the plague-origin story for the English version; where would we get evidence for that? Origins for things like that are probably lost to history.

Here are some really smart people discussing it:

http://www.cognitionandculture.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=34

I say ‘gesundheit’ for ALL bodily functions that ‘manifest audibly’ 🙂

sneezes, farts, burps, cracking-of-knuckles….

Aren’t you suppose to say, “You’re so good looking”.

There really aren’t enough Seinfeld fans in here.

I don’t say a damn thing when someone sneezes.

http://notalwaysright.com/sloth-envy-lust-and-prepaid-gas/298

Another gem. 🙂

I usually say “gesundheit” when someone sneezes, though I used to say “bless you.” I had to train myself out of saying it. If a sneeze is particularly bombastic, or if there are multiple sneezes, I’ll ask “You okay?”

When someone blesses me, I usually take it in the spirit it’s offered, and thank them. I’d rather no one acknowledges the sneeze at all, but in American culture, it’s unavoidable.

Every once in a while, if I or someone else sneezes, I say “whoops!”