Why Do We Say "Bless You"?

It is respectful and proper to say "Bless You" whenever someone sneezes. It is just not just something we say out of respect. It does have a reason.

Back in the early part of the 19th century, it was believed that when someone sneezed, the human heart actually stopped beating during the sneeze. If a person were to sneeze hard enough, they could really do some major damage to their heart.

In order for the heart to restart again, people believed that it was necessary to say "Bless you". If no one said "bless you", it was thought that the heart would not start or would not start properly and would eventually cause the sneezer death.

Of course, this is not really true. The true thing about it is that the human heart really does stop during a sneeze, but it is only for less than a second. No one has ever died of sneezing.