# What does "Blessing" something actually do?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-blessing-something-actually-do/456909>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 18, 2008, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-blessing-something-actually-do/456909 "2008-07-18T02:19:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-blessing-something-actually-do/456909/21 "2008-07-18T19:06:36Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=begbert2]  
**Kinthalis** ’s dad must have just blessed this thread.  
[/QUOTE]

Damn it dad! Stop embarrassing me in front of my friends! It’s like High School all over again.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-blessing-something-actually-do/456909/22 "2008-07-19T03:22:22Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=CalMeacham]  
I’ve been wondering this since I was a kid in Catholic school. I was told that to “bless” something was to offer it to God. But God effectively owns everything, anyway, so it wasn’t clear to me what it meant.  
[/QUOTE]  
Perhaps it is an acknowledgement that it belongs to god, and only through his divine permission can we gain nourishment from it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-blessing-something-actually-do/456909/23 "2008-07-19T04:48:45Z")

</div>

Exactly, precisely, 100% the same thing that _not_ blessing something does.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-blessing-something-actually-do/456909/24 "2008-07-20T19:02:56Z")

</div>

Tangent: In Judaism, one cannot bless things, one only blesses God.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-blessing-something-actually-do/456909/25 "2008-07-22T19:49:31Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=chacoguy420]  
I can remember people showing up for dinner and being told “That food’s already been blessed so just dig in”.  
[/QUOTE]

Among my Christian relatives, this is more of an in-joke than an assertion regarding the state of the food. It’s understood that no one eats before the blessing, and it’s also also understood that if you show up late, no one expects you to say your own blessing before partaking. The blessing, aka “saying grace,” is a general statement of thanks for the food and company, plus a request for G-d’s favor on those in attendance and elsewhere.

So among my highly unscientific sample population, it’s not the food that is being blessed, and not a blessed thing happens to the food.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-blessing-something-actually-do/456909.md?page=1)