"Have a blessed day"

[frostbite]

Sometimes I say "bless you" and sometimes I say "gesundheit", and sometimes I say, "whatever you got, get it away from me". Totally depends on the situation and the person. I never say it just out of habit, or because I think I'm exorcising demons, or even because I'm afraid the person may be ill. But a sudden sound like a sneeze makes a person alert and notice the sneezer, so I take the opportunity to let the person know that I care about them. Seems logical enough to me.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Just wanted to inform you that is not true.

The real reason is when you would sneeze people believed that was your bodies way of getting rid of satan from your body.

Way back when I think the puritans started it but most likely started be for then too.

I had read that it was believed that a person's heart would stop for a second during a sneeze and saying Bless You was like giving last rites during that brief "death".

I could be that someone started it, then another and no one really knows the origin of the practice but just keeps doing it. I read a true story once where a missionary's wife noticed in one village that all the old women had severely bent backs. She wondered why until she noticed that all the brooms in the village were very short handled. She asked one of the natives why all the brooms were short and they said because the bamboo they used to make the brooms only grew to one length in that area.

The wife had her husband scout the surrounding areas for longer bamboo canes and they found a stand, cut them down and brought them back to the village. The wife made a broom of normal length from this cane and started to sweep off her porch with it...pretty soon a crowd had gathered to stare at this "new" invention. Thereafter, the villagers would scout for the longer bamboo canes and make brooms that would allow them to stand upright as they swept out their huts.

Because of this one missionary's wife, that village has no more bent-backed old women.

Bless you all!!!

 

[punk-a-doodle]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,869741,00.html

Due to the lack of details, and way the story was structured, I looked it up. The story you are refering to is fictional. The story seems to have been taken from the fictional "The Ugly American", and neither the wife nor husband appear to be missionaries in the book (I haven't read it, but I'm going by the online summaries). It is disturbing to me that this story has been altered several times and presented in a way that contrasts the godly white people coming in and helping out the primitive natives (and of course, earning their respect and praise to the extent of having a shrine erected in some versions). The fictional main character of the book was likely based on a real life technician in the International Cooperative Agency. When stories are presented in such a way, it is best to check their source. Even if it is not the re-teller's intent, racism, religious superiority, and other unpleasant tones may very well be in previous editors' minds.

 

[cows and chickens]

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 (540-604 AD) suggested saying “God bless you” after a person sneezed in hopes that this prayer would protect them from an otherwise certain death.

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.

English – “Bless you” or “God bless you”
German – “Gesundheit”
Greeks and Romans – “Banish the Omen”
Hindu – “Live” and responds “With you”
Zulu – “I am now blessed”

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Quote:
*I* didn't Hijack it! I was framed! Framed I tell ya!

OOH yes, you WERE! VERY badly framed....

I told you! It wasn't me! It was....

 

[redhen]

Quote:
OOH yes, you WERE! VERY badly framed....

I told you! It wasn't me! It was....

 

[sourland]

Em, post # 2 of the world's longest ongoing hi-jack you admit that you are a kleptothreadiac. Before we can heal, we must admit to the problem.

Trust me, I know.

 

[redhen]

Quote:

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Quote:
But, that is STILL ON TOPIC. I was simply responding to the original post! I wasn't hi-jacking! I'm gonna have to call my lawyer aren't I?

Can we get an official response on this one? Nifty? Terri? Someone give me some backup here!


https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=543602

 

[redhen]

Quote:
But, that is STILL ON TOPIC. I was simply responding to the original post! I wasn't hi-jacking! I'm gonna have to call my lawyer aren't I?

Yes, i think a lawyer is in order here! Slanderous people all over the place!