Why are we “bless” when someone sneezes?
Throughout the English -speaking world, the phrase “your blessing” constantly follows sneezing. This is instinct and we deliver it without necessarily knowing where the phrase came from or how long we’ve said it.
Sneezing may now seem a minor side effect of climate change, while Swathes of the World on Fire and July 2023 ended as the hottest month in the world record, but climate change is proven to increase allergies.
It has been shown that a higher level of carbon dioxide and the increase in temperature for plants will make them more pollen and start the pollen season earlier.
Research by William Andeg, Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Utah, shows a sharp increase in North American pollen between 1990 and 2018. Concentrations increased by about 20 % and the “allergy season” began almost three weeks before. This increase was highlighted in the southeastern and western US areas, though it was increasing throughout the country.
More allergies, more sneezes, more blessings.
The real reason that we bless people after sneezing before we know what sneezes mean and we are doing today. In fact, for a long time, sneezing was considered a “divine benefit”.
“For European Christians, when the first plague that weakened the current Roman Christian Empire around 590, the Great Pope Gregory believed that sneezing was a warning sign, so he ordered the Christians to respond to Christians,” he said. “It was a recipe from Pope Gregory, which is widely credited as the beginning of blessings after the interruption.
“But other responses to sneezing – Gesundheit, in German; Salud, in Spanish – stem from the idea that sneezing is a sign of divine interests,” Me.
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Initially, the phrase “God blesses” was more common, but increasingly people only make it more secular to replace the two -word alternative option.
Because, the real reason we are still saying today we bless you, just because it is considered polite. Or, as Farley said, a “integration of wisdom”. We have been taught to do this, we’ve heard it before, and for many of us, it is good to say and hear it.
