War on 'Bless you" after sneezing? You decide.

[StellaBlue]

I work in a bank. Today, one of my colleagues sneezed rather loudly. I said, brightly, 'Gesundheit!', and she said 'Thanks!' in a friendly tone. Then a customer who was with ANOTHER colleague a few feet away, pointedly looked at ME (not the sneezer) and said, 'GOD BLESS YOU!', to which my colleague once again said, 'Thanks!'. Am I being paranoid here?

And I would've liked to have asked this guy, 'So, what does Gesundheit mean to you, exactly?'. You know?

Sheesh. :eyes:

[AuntPatsy]

1. lol obviously they didn't know...

[Loonman]

2. Just hook the horns at 'em

Give 'em a 'hail Satan'!

[jbnow]

3. ge·sund·heit

(gə-zʊnt'hīt') pronunciation
interj.

Used to wish good health to a person who has just sneezed.

[Warpy]

4. I personally prefer

"EEW! Cover your face with a hanky!" to the useless phrases, but that's just me.

I'll thank people who bless me, but if anybody ever gives me a nasty look while they're godblessing a companion, they'll get a worse one back.

[Marnieworld]

9. I say, "Hey you sneezed!"

which is essentially what God Bless You has become.I'm so tired of it. I hate when people say it and expect me to say it. It's a stupid custom and my opinion is undoubtedly influenced by the fact that I am an atheist with allergies.

[Lorien]

37. "You are soooo good lookin'"!

The Seinfeld response works for me. ;-)

[blue4barb]

39. I also thought of the Seinfeld episode. :-)

[Bluebear]

5. Gesundheit only means "good health", you atheist hippie pig.

You didn't invoke God's name during your blessing, why are you persecuting the faithful? :sarcasm:

[waiting for hope]

6. Here ya go....

A Note on "Gesundheit"
Most people think "Gesundheit" is synonymous with "God Bless You". The confusion over the real meaning of the word Gesundheit, which means simply "health," probably dates back to the time of the Bubonic Plague, where sneezing was a symptom of the disease. Sneezing was supposedly the person's soul making a break for it! It was believed that sickness arose due to the lack of a soul. And so "soullessness" and ill-health became synonymous during the middle ages.


http://www.the-brights.net/movement/toolbox/gby/

[Kadie]

7. Saying God Bless You...

I remember a while back hearing one of the talk show hosts on KGO in San Francisco, it may have been Gene Burns but I am not certain. He claimed that it didn't sound right to say God Bless You, it was like you were telling God what to do. LOL

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. Next time just scream

PRAISE JEEEEEESUS! BE HEEEEEEEEALED!

That ought to suffice.

[Kadie]

11. .

:spray:

[CottonBear]

12. Perfect. I think I'll try that while channeling Ernest Angely.

;)

[PeterPuck]

13. lol... nt

[tyedyeto]

15. Good one!

:rofl:

[eppur_se_muova]

20. Yeah, but you also gotta smack 'em on the forehead real hard.

Their fault if they don't have someone waiting to catch them.

[Garbo 2004]

26. I'm still laughing. Thanks! :-)

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[CottonBear]

10. Try Salud! which is Spanish for good health (I think).

I have an office manager who insists on saying "bless you" after any office sneeze. Of course, she's a redneck neo-confederate too but that's another story.

[unblock]

14. apparently in some places they say "scat"

the notion is that a sneeze makes you temporarily vulnerable to the devil inhabiting your body, and saying "scat" apparently is enough to drive the devil away.

some superstitions can seem very silly.

[BuyingThyme]

16. Next time, ask the person if he or she said GOD BLESS YOU

because he or she believed your sneeze to be an attempt by your soul to escape your body thus requiring a blessing in order to avoid being captured by demons.

Then ask them if they'd like to take a trip in your time machine to the alien chocolate factory of Jesus.

[seabeyond]

34. i thought it

was the catholics thought it was sneezing out the demons within. why you got a god bless.

[LibertyLover]

17. What to say after sneezing

While I generally prefer gesundheit, I will sometimes use "Deity of your choice bless you." I get some weird looks but it's worth it.

[The Wielding Truth]

18. This thread is hilarious! Thank you StellaB.

[LizMoonstar]

19. i say it out of reflex, but at my house we have a weird new saying for it.

after seeing team america, we kept shouting 'fuck you hans brix!' at each other in the kim jong il voice, and someone did it right after someone sneezed, and so now at our house the appropriate thing to say is 'hans brix!'

but we're weird, i tell you.

[InkAddict]

44. We're weird too then because

we always encourage the sickie to hauk out the Pittsburgh Steelers - that slimy mucousy crap you get with an upper respiratory infection just before the cough & spit routine.

[GumboYaYa]

21. I guess that is a war on the "Sneezings Greetings"...n/t

[Beelzebud]

22. Evil secular, liberal forces declare war on Bless You!

This is an afront to everything our christian nation was founded on!!!

LOL

[Catherine Vincent]

23. That was just silly!

As long as you beat her to it, what's the big deal? Did she want every person to say "God bless you"? You're right....SHEESH!

edit: most people say "bless you". I guess now we'll have a war on "bless you". I could hear it now...we need to put "God" back in "Bless you". :eyes:

[MindPilot]

24. "I expel thee, foul demon!" is my usual retort to the blessing.

If it was a particularly nasty one, I will sometimes launch into an explanation about how snot is actually the ectoplasm of the unsaved spirits. People will generally leave me alone after that.

[nemo137]

25. Actually, I had a health teacher who very pointedly said "God bless you"

when someone sneezed, and then looked at me ("he used to describe me to other teacher as his "liberal buddy") and said "at least I can still say that in school."

He was a cool guy. We locked horns every day, and still totally believe that the other is dead wrong, but he honestly cares about his students. We used to watch CNN in class and argue. I'm kind of sad he retired, he was a decent guy.

[Parche]

27. Islam

What do the Islamic people say............."Allah blessyou"??

[Zynx]

28. I once had a brain fart and said "Thank you." when someone sneezed

near me. :-)

[The2ndWheel]

29. Delete(double post)

[The2ndWheel]

30. The more you think of it

the funnier saying anything after someone sneezes gets. Try saying "bless you" after somebody coughs, and see if anyone corrects you before God smotes thee.

[IDemo]

38. "Fer crisakes cover your mouth!!"

[Raydawg1234]

31. Lol................

The forces of "Gesundheit" are growing ever stronger in their war against "God Bless You". :sarcasm:

[DemGirl7]

32. I prefer to just say "bless you"

I leave out the god part, I really don't think it's really necessary, given the fact that I don't know how they feel about religion in general.

[seabeyond]

33. god bless you after a sneeze came from catholics who thought

the sneeze let out the evil spirits that were within. so next time someone makes that point, laugh and in good humor let them know where god bless you came from after a sneeze. i still prefer the god bless you,..... and often will go into the story of why i say god bless you after a sneeze

[chat_noir]

35. my response (mostly unspoken): lucky you

Strange? Not at all.

Years ago I dated someone who told me that a sneeze was physically like an orgasm. Unusual circumstances: I was young, and had no idea of what an orgasm felt like, and he was a seminary student.

Anyway, once I did know what an orgasm felt like, I enjoyed my sneezes...and still do. ;)

[TankLV]

43. Sneezes, a good shit and an orgasm are supposed to be the 3 most

pleasurable experiences - so I've heard.

I try to enjoy all three!

[eppur_se_muova]

46. So do you say "One down, two to go" ?

And PRAAAAY that they ask "What do you mean ?" !

[nemo137]

45. That explains my friend who wanted a cigarette after her sneezes.

:shrug:

[Walt Starr]

36. Gesundheit literally means "Health comes." n/t

[StellaBlue]

40. thanks for the hilarious input

I liked 'Diety of your choice bless you.'

[AZBlue]

41. Next time say, "You are soooo good looking."

That's from Seinfeld.

[Telly Savalas]

42. Holy moly!

I jokingly tried to incite a "Bless You" war in the Lounge last week.

Reality is becoming so twisted, it's becoming really hard to write satire these days.

[porphyrian]

47. How else will we exorcise the demons? - n/t