Sneeze And Someone Will Say, “God Bless You” – Have You Ever Wondered Why?

Sneeze and the world will wish good health to you! Confused much? Well, in the year 600 if you were to sneeze, people would give you a pitiful look, exactly like the look you give to a sick person who’s lost hope in life. What a difficult time to sneeze, right?

With the common cold, the dreaded coronavirus, the flu, and whatnot on the rise right now, it’s difficult not to sneeze. Here’s a fact, you don’t even need to be sick to sneeze because according to the NCBI, 95% of people sneeze and blow their noses less than four times a day. But if you were to sneeze near proper old people, you’ll hear them say, “God bless you.” If you have ever wondered why they say that, let me tell you that there’s a solid reason behind their good wishes of health for you.

Enter the Black Plague, also known as the Black Death, Great Plague or just Plague – the most disastrous pandemics in human history which sent 25 million people to their early grave. People who survived the Plague can tell you just how terrified they were of sneezing because apparently the first symptoms of the Plague were sneezing and coughing, followed by boils, high fever, respiratory problems, bloody vomits, and finally skin necrosis. Sadly, most victims died within 10 days of infection.

People at that time had no access to modern medicine to help them combat the deadly disease, instead, they did what they knew best – prayers, herbs and a truckload of weird folk remedies to somehow survive the Plague. The deadly Plague had gripped everyone’s hearts; people were looking for miracles that would help them stay safe and so on the 16^th of February 600, Pope Gregory I issued a papal decree that changed the ‘world of sneeze’ as we know it. In his papal bull, the pope stated that anyone close to a sneeze should immediately say a short, three-word prayer, requesting God to bless the unfortunate person, i.e. the sneezer.

The pope believed that if the sneezer was showered with blessings they may be saved from the full onset of the deadly Plague. That’s when the phrase “God bless you” came into play – a short prayer that everyone said when a person sneezed, to save them from death. But, what inspired the pope to come up with such an order? While we’ll never know for sure, it is believed that even before the Great Plague, before the pope issued the papal bull, people hundreds of years ago uttered the words, “Gob bless you” when anyone around them sneezed.

Pope Gregory I became pope after his predecessor died of the Plague. (mycatholiclife.com)

These people believed that during the duration of a sneeze, a person’s soul left the body leaving that said person in a vulnerable position – an open vessel for devils and evil spirits to enter. They thought that a short prayer would not only help scare off evil spirits and demons but also serve as a prayer to God to give the sneezer their soul back. Even today some people believe that a sneeze can temporarily stop the heart, a myth that has been debunked, and that saying a short prayer helps restart the heart! Well, whatever the reasons may be, it feels good when someone wishes you good health and asks God to bless you, no?