S

through my senses -- most likely senseless

Friday, February 18, 2005

sneeze and learn :)

its a common practice to say "Bless You" when someone sneezes. Since I live in a cubicle zoo, whenever I sneeze, I get a lot of 'Bless You' wishes. strangely, I got none when I sneezed today. I looked around only to find just one guy sitting across. shamelessly I aksed him to bless me :) little did I know that I would soon be blessed with the history behind wishing "bless you".

Whatever I learnt, you can also find it here -

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgesundheit.html
http://biowww.clemson.edu/biolab/sneeze.html
http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/blessyou.htm
http://www.oldwivestales.net/QandAarticle1112.html

and here is the biggest of all...... my colleague didn't bless me because, yeah try this, he considered it as a pagan belief :)

14 Comments:

Blogger Me said...

I knew about "bless you" but now learnt about pagan (with help of Google).

7:35 PM  
Blogger saranyan r said...

were you surprised by knowing the meaning :-)

8:04 PM  
Blogger Krish said...

Surprised...dont we have it here in TN???...my granny used to (still does) wish small kids "Dheerghaausu" when they sneeze...I hadnt given enuf thought to it till now though..

2:04 AM  
Blogger Sangeeta said...

Ah Ah Ah.. Accchooooooooooooooooo!!!
I knew about the story behind it too..

8:33 AM  
Blogger Me said...

I was surprised.

12:33 PM  
Blogger saranyan r said...

i was also thinking that our heart may stop momentarily when we sneeze. looks like that is not true.
I was surprised by the infomation.
and yeah, lot of similarities betweeen entirely different cultures :)

4:45 PM  
Blogger reNUka said...

yeah - a mini explosion happens in the heart they say - not sure if it is a fact - hahah reminds me of pai mei (sorry abt that - jus cudnt resist) of kill bill

6:27 PM  
Blogger Anu said...

at home, the "deergaish" that comes with a sneeze transforms into "jigushpunash" for kids..hv heard my mom say that..really dont know how that change happens..(a li'l bit of tamil grammar here..this i think, is called "thiribu") where words change over frequent usage...

and one more interesting observation..my sis and one of my colleagues start sneezing the moment they come out and are exposed to the sun..Strange!! i also know a girl in my class, who doesnt stop sneezing till she has done that atleast 20 times without a break!

8:38 PM  
Blogger The Last Blogger said...

Bless you !

9:48 PM  
Blogger Chakra said...

cool.. i knew it before!

off the topic Saranyan, cd u make the links open in a new window.. currently it takes the reader away from your site.

1:15 AM  
Blogger Prabha said...

Pagan belief!!oh my god!!
I didnt know this !!

3:14 AM  
Blogger saranyan r said...

anupama, thats interesting.

Chakra, I'll make that change. thanks for the suggestion.

10:34 AM  
Blogger Twin-Gemini said...

I have heard a different story, although a bit scientific: Your heart stops for a second when you sneeze, thats why they tell you that.

8:38 PM  
Blogger saranyan r said...

Anand, thats not true. use the links given in the post to know more.

9:19 PM  

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