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The custom started a long time ago, going back to ancient and medieval times.

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In ancient Rome, people believed sneezing could be a sign of illness or bad luck.

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During the plague in the 6th century, Pope Gregory I told people to say “God bless you” to protect others from getting sick.

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Some people believed that when you sneezed, your soul might escape, or evil spirits could enter your body.

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Saying “bless you” was a way to protect or wish good health to the person who sneezed.

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Today, the phrase is a polite social habit, even if people no longer believe in the old reasons.

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In some cultures, people say different things, but the meaning is usually the same: to show care or good wishes.

Useful Phrases

“Bless you!”

– The most common thing to say after someone       sneezes.

“Gesundheit!”

– A German word sometimes used in English, meaning "health."

“Are you okay?”

– A caring response if someone sneezes several       times.

“Excuse me.”

– What people often say after sneezing.

“I think I’m coming down with something.”

– A way to say you might be getting sick.

“Take care of yourself.”

– A polite phrase when someone seems unwell.

Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the new segment【Oh, So That's Why】《原来如此》. Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu, hi everyone.

So this is a spin off segment from 【It Means What?】 这是【词源考古研究所】的姐妹篇. In this, we're gonna expose the origins of some of the most common social behaviors, human behaviors that we often take for granted, like shaking hands or cheering with glasses. So what are we gonna talk about today?

Hang on. Achoo!

Bless you.

Actually, let's talk about that.

When I sneezed, 我打喷嚏的时候, 你为什么会说bless you? I don't know. It's almost like a knee jerk reaction, it's like a natural reaction among English speakers.

It is, you can't convince anyone that was a planned sneeze.

No. All right.

So why do we say “bless you” after a sneeze?

Now this is, as Lulu said, it's a knee jerk reaction. It's something that we just do automatically.

Knee jerk reaction本意是膝跳反射, 但这里就是说你一个特别自然的反应.

Yeah

They don't really have to think about it. No, the English speakers. when they hear someone sneeze, they just say bless you. Sometimes even when strangers sneeze, they would do that.

Yeah, now the reason for this is it starts from ancient Rome.

Everything started from ancient Rome.

Most things do.

So people believe that sneezing could be a sign of illness, which it often is, but also a sign of bad luck.

Actually, when it's flu season, when you sneeze, I'll just step away.

Oh Yeah. But it was during a plague in the 6th century that the Pope, Pope Gregory I, told people to protect yourself and other people from the plague. You have to say god bless you.

Plague就是瘟疫，kind of like, for example, black death.

Yes.

So this is the church, the Pope telling people to say, god bless you, yes, which then on got shortened to bless you.

Yes. And also back then, people believe that when you sneezed, your soul might escape.

Oh I've heard about this, when you are sneezing, it's your soul trying to escape from your... the vessel.

Yeah, which is something I never quite understand like why your soul would want to escape. But apparently saying “bless you” stops the soul from leaving or it's to stop evil spirits entering your body.

So it's like a reverse exorcism is to keep your own spirit in.

Yeah, and evil spirits out.

It's interesting how many human behaviors are based on the idea that doing this can ward off evil spirits.

Well, I think pretty much most cultures or if not all cultures have similar traditions. So this is as I say it's just an automatic response.

Now today we don't believe this, we don't believe that if you have hay fever or you have a cold, then it's a sign of evil spirits trying to enter your body. But we still say this phrase.

Bless you but you no longer say god bless you, it’s just bless you.

Bless you.

Bless you, even when you're not religious?

Yeah, it doesn't have that same meaning anymore. It's just a polite social phrase. So even if you're not Christian, it's still polite just to say bless you.

Basically it's like a well wishing sending you the good wish that you don't get sick. I mean if you think about it, this whole evil spirit trying to take over or your soul trying to escape, it is also linked with getting ill.

Oh yes.

If you get struck down by the plague, obviously, in modern medical science, we can explain that's because of virus, you get infected with a virus. But back then, when they did not understand viruses, they probably just thought you were struck down by the plague because some evil spirit was trying to take over.

Well exactly. So this is all sort of like very early medical care, just not very useful medical care.

Exactly. Can you imagine if whatever the plague was, whatever the virus was, if it's airborne or it can be transmitted through like spittle, then you sneeze is bad enough. The other person saying facing you, saying bless you, and it's going to be transmitted even faster.

Oh Yeah. Maybe I would say that people did somewhat see the link between the two, but when you sneeze or if you breathe on someone, that's how people get ill.

So I would say it could also be like some sort of basic medical understanding, but they couldn't quite understand the reason why. But they probably saw that if people kept sneezing, then you'll get ill.

Yeah, it could also be some form of a... almost like a chant or a spell. It's like bless you. It's almost like fingers crossed. Yeah, like bless you because this person is probably ill or going to be ill.

But that's the thing. There's no such similar phrase in Chinese, is there?

No, we just say wear more clothes.

Well yeah, drink more hot water.

Drink more hot water. Yeah, exactly.

Or in my mom's case like you're definitely ill. Let me boil some ginger soup, but it's not just English. I've heard something like people saying Gesundheit but that's not even English but English people... I've heard English people saying that.

Gesundheit is German and it just means health. So it's the German equivalent of bless you.

But why do I hear it in English speaking context?

That's because it's mostly used in America where there was a huge German community. So there were lots lots of German immigrants in the 18th and 19th century. And that's probably one of the words that they just learnt.

So they influence the language, it’s a loan word.

It's a loan word, yeah. So we don't say Gesundheit in Britain, but you do hear it in America.

But British people do understand that.

Yeah. It's a bit strange if we say it.

By the way, one thing, when I sneeze, obviously, I can't control that when I sneeze and someone around me saying, bless you, what should I say? Thank you?

Yeah, you'd say thank you. Or if you actually sneeze, you might say, excuse me.

How can I sneeze and say...? Oh so, I can say excuse me afterwards.

You don't say them at the same time.

Because I cannot control. I cannot be “excuse me--Achoo” exactly I can “Achoo” and then “excuse me”.

Yeah, so it's polite after you sneeze just say, excuse me, and it's also polite to say that in if you fart as well.

No, I'd rather just hide it. I'd rather just not admit that I was the one who farted.

Well, sometimes you can't hide it .

Because when you say, excuse me, then you just notified everyone that...

Yeah, burping, farting, sneezing.

Any sound that is natural, but you shouldn't be making in public. Then you say, excuse me, yes. I think that's very British because I've seen people burping and be very proud of it.

I have been to lots of places, I know lots of people who are very proud of their burps and also very proud of their farts.

Yeah, sneezing, excuse me.

I've actually had people not say “bless you” after I sneeze, they asked me, “are you ok ?”

Yeah, and you might say, I think I'm coming down with something.

I'm coming down with something. Essentially is I'm coming down with perhaps a cold or the flu就是大概就觉得要病了的那种感觉, you know the feeling that you get like your throat is feeling a bit sore and you're a bit heady and you know that you're going to come down with a cold.

Yeah. So if someone says that it's always polite just to say take care of yourself, hope you feel better soon.

Drink hot water.

Yeah, that is... I think that's a very Chinese.

You don't really say drink hot water, do you?

No.no.

By the way, one final thing,In China, we say if you sneeze once that's fine. But if you sneeze twice, I think it was...if you sneeze twice, someone's missing you. There was a whole superstition attached to it.

I think in the UK if you sneeze 3 times, then someone's talking about you.

I think you sneeze 3 times in a row. You're definitely coming down with something.

Yeah.

Or you're just allergic to my cat.

Could be.

So on that note, we're gonna wrap up today's episode on why people say “bless you” in English after they hear other people sneeze. So if you like the segment, leave us a comment, show us some love. What put in your request for any other human behaviors that you want us to explain.

So until next time.

We'll see you next time.

Bye

Bye.