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Know Your English (May 2001)

Know your English

When someone sneezes why do people say, ``Bless you''?

This is based on a superstition. People in the old days believed that whenever someone sneezed, the individual's soul came out with the sneeze. (Some people believed that the devil entered the individual!) And what would happen if the soul escaped? The individual would die, of course! To prevent the soul from escaping, they sought divine intervention - they called upon the Almighty to ``bless'' the sneezer and keep his/her soul inside. This is just one of the theories going around. Although people these days do not believe that an individual's soul will escape along with a sneeze, the expression ``Bless you'' continues to be used.


Source:
The Hindu daily, Tuesday, May 08, 2001
Posted by Sridevi. V, M.A

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