I'm probably mangling the spelling of that word (what a bad German I am), but here's the question:

Does anyone get offended when they sneeeze and someone says "gezundheit"?

At work, I notice when people sneeze and we say "bless you", it's always followed by "thank you" by the sneezer. But when I say "gezundheit", it's always followed by silence.

What, if anything, is up with that?

Anxiety said:

You know, I've noticed the same thing! I only ever say gezundheit, being that I'm an atheist and "bless you" doesn't make sense to me. Now that I'm thinking back, I don't ever get thanked for that.

CarrieMpls said:

From my understanding people started saying bless you after it was discovered your heart stops when you sneeze. Another reason why is because sneezing is a sympton of being sick, so maybe they people think by blessing you they're in some way preventing you from getting sick. My question is where did people get this power to bless others, I thought that was something only God could do.

i actually never noticed that before ....

but it makes sense .... cause its a foreign language that most americans are so backwards when it comes to learning any foreign language .... i would imagine - that has alot to do with it

by the way - its Gesundheit .... i think Gesund means "health " and it more or less translates into "to your health " ... or .... "wishing u top health "

sinisterpentatonic said:

And the children's rhyme 'ring-around-the-rosie' came from the plague of black death back in medieval times this also around the same time where the term 'bless you' was used when you... "A-TISHOOOO!!!" It was a huge plague, and there was at least one family member from each family in that point in time and location that died from it.

sinisterpentatonic said:

I should have spoken more clearly. I understand the various reasons people say it, it's etymology, etc., it just doesn't make sense for me to say.

See, I grew up with my German Baptist grandparents saying "gesundheit" and my mother saying it and every now and then I hear it on TV, so I just figured it was part of the common vernacular.

I'm sorta the same way as Carrie where "bless you" is concerned - I'm not Athiest, but I feel like "gesundheit" is less...I dunno...denominational?

Maybe these people I work with think I'm saying "Hail Satan" in Smurf language or something.

Maybe people don't respond cause they don't know how to say thankyou in German?

Anxiety said:

Shit, that's so true

mostly when people near me sneeze i reach out and pat the top of their head firmly, to tamp their soul back down in there.


from: http://www.positiveatheis...ml8998.htm
There is a perfectly sensible scientific reason that you have to say "God bless you" when somebody sneezes.

Sixth century CE science, that is.

First you have to remember that the sky is made out of crystal and is less than three miles from the ground. The reason that it is blue is that it is covered with water (that's where most of Noah's flood came from.) God divided the waters and these are those he put above. Just this side of all that liquid is a substance called Ether, which the anæsthetic was named after. In this region live small devils. During the War in Heaven these guys had been cherubs.

Holy Spirit force (later replaced by gravity) causes everything to reach its natural level. Real Devils go to Hell. Humans to ground level. And these little Imps float around in the Ether.

Now at this time your soul and your breath were the same thing. The soul didn't take on its separateness until the sixteenth century when we found out what a respiratory system was. In those days it closely resembled what the Chinese call the Chi and the Hawaiians call the Ha (as in HAwaii or AloHA)

Depending upon your translation of Genesis it will either say God's breath was upon the waters (cooling off the primordial soup?) or his spirit was upon the waters. Both translations are correct. Breath and Spirit are (or rather were) the same thing.

So when you sneeze your breath/soul gets shot out of your body. Until you can suck it back in it is in danger from the Imps that inhabit the Ether. Dante had a thing or two to say about these nasty guys in his Purgatory section of the Divine Comedy. The only thing to do stop these Imps from attaching themselves and being taken into your friend's body is to invoke God's blessings while their soul is still separated. If you don't do that, or you are too slow, your friend will become ill, maybe even die.

I often wonder why "Creation Science" exponents spend so much time attacking Darwin and ignore this bit of Biblical science. Shouldn't Duane Gish be showing us how pollen and mold spores are actually the tiny minions of Satan?

Dr JohnPaul Slater

If you sneeze on Monday, you sneeze in danger;
Sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger;
Sneeze on Wednesday, sneeze for a letter;
Sneeze on Thursday, something better;
Sneeze on Friday, sneeze for sorrow;
Sneeze on Saturday, see your sweetheart tomorrow;
Sneeze on Sunday, and the devil will have domination over you all week

http://www.geocities.com/...achoo.html

Anxiety said:

they don't understand german? well maybe next time you should just say "that was a HUGE sneeze. gee, i hope your soul's okay."

Maybe I should just do like they suggested on Seinfeld and say "you are SO good looking" whenever someone sneezes.

sinisterpentatonic said
From my understanding people started saying bless you after it was discovered your heart stops when you sneeze. Another reason why is because sneezing is a sympton of being sick, so maybe they people think by blessing you they're in some way preventing you from getting sick. My question is where did people get this power to bless others, I thought that was something only God could do.[/quote]



I heard the reasoning behind your second point originally comes from Britain.

Saying "Bless you" when someone sneezed, as legend would have it, derived around the

period of the mid 14th to mid 17th century, during the time of the notorious Great Bubonic

Plague in that region.

"Bless you" was said to those who sneezed because sneezing was one of the first symtoms

of the Plague and once you got it you were sure to die, so folk used to 'Bless you' as they

thought you were already on your way to death!!! ....

...And there endeth the lesson ... well that's what me teacher taught me at

primary school anyways.

CarrieMpls said:

Anxiety said:

what a great episode!!

yup, i say "Gesundheit", too, mostly to avoid the religious overtones of "Bless you", but i think people mostly assume i say it because i'm german. oh well, works for me...

senik said:

Like she said!!! http://www.prince.org/msg...sg_1507702
[This message was edited Thu Apr 1 0:11:41 2004 by sinisterpentatonic]

sinisterpentatonic said:

That is a myth. People used to believe that your heart actually stopped when you sneeze, so they would say "God Bless You" (or something to that effect...same in most any other culture).

Your heart only stops ONCE in your life...and that's when you get to find out whether or not there's an afterlife!!!

PurpleJedi said:

[/quote]

I say "doomkoff" and people just star at me.

Bloody weirdos.

So people in English speaking countries really say "Gesundheit" , that's funny, I did not know that, can they pronounce it

bkw said:

Serious said:

it's actually quite close... something like "Gehsuhntheit" (that's my attempt at German phonetic transcription here... )

IAmTheTouch said:

I see, thanks Martina

Serious said:

you're welcome, Martina!

senik said:

The Bubonic plague didn't last from the 14th through the 17th century. There were three outbreaks: one in the 6th century, one in the 14th, and one in the 17th century.

BRING OUT YER DEAD!!!!
[This message was edited Thu Apr 1 6:47:02 2004 by minneapolisgenius]

minneapolisgenius said:

i'm not dead! i feel fine!

IAmTheTouch said:

Gee, how did I know that you'd be the one to respond to my post?


"I'm getting better."

"I feel haapy! I feel happy!"

minneapolisgenius said:

so much for me being all mysterious and unpredictable!