Instead of the full “gesundheit” I just say “gesund.” I know it’s wrong – I’m saying “healthy” instead of “health” – but it’s shorter and quicker and gets the point across.
I don’t say anything. I’m agnostic, but my wife, who is atheist, always say gesundheit.
I say “bless you” or “God bless you”. I also say “Jesus!” when I’m surprised, often sigh “For Pete’s sake . . .” and am quite fond of “goddamn”. Some people are bad Catholics; I’m a bad atheist. More of an agnostic, really. (See?!)
When I sneeze - if some one says ‘Gesundheit’ - I usually respond with ’ …comes out loose!’
I usually just go with non-religious but that works pretty well. I’m the same way. It seems silly to say anything but I say “Bless you” as a reflex expression.
I say nothing and continue on as if it didn’t happen
“Blessings of the Old Gods upon you…”
Non-religious, but I say “Bless you”, anyway. As others have said, it’s the polite thing to do.
At my office, you’ll get a bless you for the first or second sneeze, but if you keep it up, someone will say, “Shut Up!”.
I don’t say anything to others. I have trained some of my coworkers who sit near me to respond with “Shut up!” when I sneeze.
Gesundheit for me. From a TV story about a South African winemaker, I learned that some folks say it for a toast. It means “to your health,” like Frodo’s “salud” does.
It’s trickier than you might think to keep God-speak out of your vocabulary. Many of our emotional words are minced God-speak. Not just goldurn, Godfrey Daniels, jeeez, and gee whiz, either. Egad, sacre bleu, gah, zounds (God’s wounds), blimey, (God blind me), dagnabbit, and dog my cats all come from deity references.
I get extremely annoyed if anybody interrupts a train of thought (mine or his/hers) to say anything at all. Especially if there is an ongoing conversation taking place about some topic other than sneeze cosmology.
I am confused why anyone feels the need to say anything when someone else sneezes. If I sneeze, I say ‘excuse me’ to bystanders, because I just made a loud noise (and potentially blew a mist of snot and and nastiness in the air).
It mildly annoys me when others bless me or even say gesundheit. It’s pointless and arcane.
I say nothing- it’s just a simple sneeze and requires no comment.
I say gesundheit or bless you. It’s a social acknowledgement not a literal prayer or sermon or missionary attack.
Yep. I don’t feel the need to say anything when someone coughs, burps, or farts, why should I say something to someone when they sneeze?
“Salut” or “salud”. I’m a Yank incidentally.
Nothing at all. It’s a weird social custom that I didn’t grow up with, as in no one in my family said anything at all.
I don’t say anything. Same as when someone coughs or yawns.