Surely I’m not alone. I’ve never done it, nor do I intend do, especially when you consider the silly history of it all. But there are times when someone sneezes and an awkward silence follows, as if the person is expecting people to say it.
What say you then? Do you say it, and do you consider it rude for those not to say it? Personally I’ve seen it go the other way, for example, a person sneezing in class and others interrupting the lecture to verbally say “bless you,” as if it’s some urgent task that must be done at the expense of talking over the professor.
Ok, I got a few issues with this because on the one hand, I believe that if something is a social norm, and it botherin’ me none, I might as well participate.
On the other hand, I really do feel like I should take a tiny ‘stand’ against supersticion (thanks to Dawkins for raising my awareness on that)
What I do is say something like, “Oh My!” or “Poor thing!” some nonsense like that seems to work fine as social grease.
When I sneeze and they say ‘bless you’ I feel like saying thank you is fine, but I still get an itty bitty nagging feeling that I am participating in supersticious bs. So I have started just saying ‘excuse me!’ in an apologetic tone. Again, works fine as social grease.
I just go for the “gesundheit.” Nothing wrong with wishing a person good health. And just do it once, please. If a person is sneezing repeatedly because of allergies, there is no need for making a big fuss.
I’m very certain that most of us who say bless you to someone who sneezes mean nothing religious by it, and the vast majority of people who hear it don’t think there’s anything religious about it either. It’s just something most people say to acknowledge that the other person sneezed.
I do ignore it if someone is repeatedly sneezing, but the first time they do it, I feel odd about ignoring it because I know that social norms usually call for a response.
I know it is silly though. I don’t want to say anything at all. I’m going to stop saying anything at all.
There’s a guy in my office who has to say “Bless you” for every single sneeze anywhere in the office. Every. single. friggin’. time. Sneeze 5 times in a row? He’ll bless you after each bloody one. That’s really annoying.
How can “bless you” not have a religious intent? The sentiment is inherently religious.
Well, yeah, but I don’t think it necessarily means anything. It’s just something people say without thinking about what it means. I don’t believe in god and I just say it to be polite.
