who came up with bless you when you sneeze
Pope Gregory I
title: God bless you text: the plague of AD 590, "Pope Gregory I ordered unceasing prayer for divine intercession. Part of his command was that anyone sneezing be blessed immediately ("God bless you"), since sneezing was often the first sign that someone was falling ill with the plague." By AD 750, it became customary to say "God bless you" as a response to one sneezing. The practice of blessing someone who sneezes dates as far back as at least AD 77, although it is far older than most specific explanations can account for. Some have offered an explanation suggesting that people once held the folk title: God bless you text: the gods to make her statement come true. It was a blessing from the gods, connecting the sneeze to the "God Bless You." God bless you God bless you ("variants include" God bless or bless you) is a common English expression, used to wish a person blessings in various situations, especially as a response to a sneeze, and also, when parting or writing a valediction. The phrase has been used in the Hebrew Bible by Jews (cf. ), and by Christians, since the time of the early Church as a benediction, as well as a means of bidding a person title: God bless you text: God bless you God bless you ("variants include" God bless or bless you) is a common English expression, used to wish a person blessings in various situations, especially as a response to a sneeze, and also, when parting or writing a valediction. The phrase has been used in the Hebrew Bible by Jews (cf. ), and by Christians, since the time of the early Church as a benediction, as well as a means of bidding a person Godspeed. Many clergy, when blessing their congregants individually or as a group, use the phrase "God bless you". "National Geographic" reports that during title: Sneeze text: sneeze, had likely led people to believe that sneezing could easily be fatal. Such a theory could explain the reasoning behind the traditional English phrase, "God bless you", in response to a sneeze, the origins of which are not entirely clear (see "Traditional Responses To A Sneeze" below for alternative explanations). Sir Raymond Henry Payne Crawfurd, for instance, the registrar of the Royal College of Physicians, in his 1909 book, "The Last Days of Charles II", states that, when the controversial monarch was on his deathbed, his medical attendants administered a concoction of cowslips and extract of ammonia to promote title: Germanism (linguistics) text: "Fußball") for the tabletop football, for which in Germany however the English term "kicker" is used. If somebody is sneezing, one may respond "[god] bless you". Because many people don't want to use a blessing phrase with religious context, instead the German term "gesundheit" is widely used. In German, "Gesundheit" means health, but is also used as response when someone sneezes. The same word is used in Yiddish, and thus came to be known also in the US. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary lists the German word "verboten", defined as "forbidden by an authority". Weltschmerz, Schadenfreude, Brat, kaput, Weltanschauung. Another