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Wed 7 Sep, 2005 06:31 pm
My husband is an atheist (he can't help it, he has a Phd. in science) and refuses to say "God bless you" or "Bless you" if someone sneezes. Now I know this is one of those stupid, rather trivial issues, but I can see people expect it after they sneeze and he just stands there in silence. We own a retail business (plant nursery) and the rag weed in our field is in bloom, so we hear a lot sneezing during the day. Do atheists just ignore the social standard? I thought he should say "be well", since that is how the whole thing started in the first place, and it get's rid of the god issue.
What do you atheists say when someone sneezes?
I don't say nothin' . . .
By the by, for all the good christians out there, the whole blessing someone when they sneeze has pagan origins. If someone sneezed during a solemn public occasion, the Greeks took it as a sign of the displeasure of Zeus with the event, and immediate propitiation was ordered. The christians adopted the superstition because the largest early christian communities were among the Greeks.
The reasoning for the words "bless you" began because it was once believed that when you sneezed, you could lose your soul by blowing it out your nose or mouth.
There seems to be many ideas as to where the tradition started. I always heard the plague version. Here are numerious ideas:
http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/blessyou.htm
I say "Gesundheit" - good health.
hamburger's mother used to say that if an "innocent" sneezed three times, whatever had just been said must be true
If I say anything, I say the german equivilant (as Beth does), but I thought it meant bless you.
Setanta wrote:I don't say nothin' . . .
So what do you say Setanta? Keep in mind your double negative of '
I don't say nothin' ' means you actually say something since the second negative negates the first.
I have grown up saying the words "Bless You" and I guess I always will.
In the Mexican side of my family it is "Salud" (health) for the first sneeze, "Dinero" (money) for the second, and "Amor"(love) if there is a third.
I think this is a Mexican custom.
I have never gotten to the fourth sneeze, I suspect It may be "Santa Maria Madre de Dios!".
Salud.
Dinero.
Amor.
Sexo.
Muerte.
(probably not a good sequence...)
I say "Get away from me with your filthy germs and snot!"
heehee..... <so do I, but I tag on "... you pathogen-ridden germ-bag!">
BBB
If I sneeze and spray all over someone, I had them a tissue and say "I'm sorry" and then run like hell. Otherwise I say nothing.
BBB
patiodog wrote:Salud.
Dinero.
Amor.
Sexo.
Muerte.
(probably not a good sequence...)
Usually "Sexo" comes before "Amor".
Other than that, the sequence is perfectly logical.
I'll sometimes say "damn you go to hell."
But only because I think it's funny.
I either don't say anything at all, or "bless you."
I say bless you thinking of the old superstition. You sneeze, your mouth opens for demons to go in, and a quick blessing is said to wish them away. I don't believe it for a second, but I like the novelty of it nonetheless.
I say something if someone seems to expect me to, but my heart isn't in it.
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