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G’ bless you…
I knew it was coming one of these days. Yesterday, I sneezed and my oldest son said “G’ bless you!” My first thought was, “Wow!! Very impressive!” My second thought? “Who the hell taught him that?”
My husband and I don’t have a sneezing etiquette. We don’t say anything. We sneeze and get on with our lives. When it comes to the kids, we make a “WoooooOoOOOoO” sound and it makes them laugh. In our opinion, there is not reason for blessings from God. Now, I do say “Salut” or “gesundheit” when I’m in public or around family. I just do it to be polite. But we never really did that with the kids. I guess we’ll start now. I know that this came from school. I don’t want teachers to mistake the fact that he’s not saying “God bless you” for being rude.
So I explained to him that he didn’t have to say “God bless you” when I sneeze, but I thanked him. Then I introduced “salut” to him. It’s amazing. This would be the first time that he’s been exposed to the word “God,” and it was by his teachers.
on April 5th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
As atheist parents my wife and I have thought a lot about the “god bless you” issue. I like your thinking about being polite, while not entirely theistic.
on April 5th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
I use ‘gesundheit’ instead of ‘God bless you’ too. Perhaps this is a hitherto undiscovered method of identifying other atheists! (or Germans ;O)
on April 5th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
In Spanish we say “Salud”. I think I am going to use it in English also and forget the “bless you”
on April 6th, 2006 at 3:41 am
gesundheit means something like “be healthy” right? or is it just god bless you in German?
on April 6th, 2006 at 9:12 am
Gesundheit is the german word for health. Here’s more info from Answers.com. Very interesting!!
Here’s what they have to say about “bless you.”
Hey, thanks to all of you for stopping by and commenting!! :-)
on April 6th, 2006 at 10:03 am
I just say “Good sneeze!” Beyond being polite, it’s not theistic, and it actually is encouraging for some people.
on April 6th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Salute (accent on e, health, Italian) is our choice. Good topic. Often thought about this before ours was born and our friends (1 from Milan) just used it the other night and it stuck.
on April 6th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Salute, Salud and Salut….
Ok, all of these different spellings got me looking.
Salut - Catalan (Spain)
Saúde - Galician (Spain)
Salute - Italian
Salud - Spanish
Here is a list of ways to say “To your health” or “To health” (pronunciation) -
Fisehatak (Fiseh’atak) - Arabic
Na zdrave (Na zdrave) - Bulgarian
Na zdravà(Na zdravi) - Czech
Gezondheid (Rhe’sondheid) - Dutch (Flemish)
Je via sano (YEH VEE-ah SAH-no - Esperanto
(Teie) terviseks (’Terviseks) - Estonian
Terveydeksi (?) - Finnish
(À votre) santé (A votr songté) - French
Sláinte (Slorntche) - Gaelic (Ireland)
Slaandjivaa (?) - Gaelic (Scotland)
Zum Wohl (Tsum vool) - German
Egészségedre (’Eh-geyss-shey-geh-dreh) - Hungarian
A vostre sanitate (A ‘vostre sani’tate) - Interlingua
Sanitas bona (?) - Latin
(Be) salam ati (Bè salam ati) - Persian (Iran)
Na zdrowie (Na zdrowie) - Polish
Saude (Sauth) - Portuguese
Na zdorovje (Na zda’rovye) - Russian
Na zdravie (Na zdre’vie) - Slovak
Na zdravie (?) - Slovenian
Gesondheid (Rhe’sondheid) - South African (Afrikaans)
Sagligina (?) - Turkish
The guy who put this list together said that some may be incorrect.
I also found this interesting post on “The War Against ‘Bless You’” - Bill O’Reilly is such an ass.
on April 6th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
More translations for “Health” -
Nederlands (Dutch)
gezondheid, welzijn op iemands gezondheid drinken
Français (French)
santé
Deutsch (German)
n. - Gesundheit, Gesundheitszustand
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. �…γεία �€Î¯Î½�‰ �ƒ�„ην �…γεία κά�€Î¿Î¹Î¿�…
Italiano (Italian)
salute
Português (Portuguese)
n. - saúde (f)
� ÑƒÑ�Ñ��º�¸�¹ (Russian)
�·�´�¾Ñ€�¾�²ÑŒ�µ, ц�µ�»�µ�±�½�°Ñ� Ñ��¸�»�°, �±�»�°�³�¾Ñ��¾Ñ�т�¾Ñ��½�¸�µ �¿�¸Ñ‚ÑŒ �·�° чь�µ-�»�¸�±�¾ �·�´�¾Ñ€�¾�²ÑŒ�µ
Español (Spanish)
n. - salud, sanidad
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - hälsa
ä¸Â国è¯Â? (Simplified Chinese)
n. - å�¥åº·, å�¥åº·çŠ¶æ€�, 蓬勃
ä¸Â國話 (Traditional Chinese)
n. - å�¥åº·, å�¥åº·ç‹€æ…‹, 蓬勃
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - �康, �全, �康状態, 乾�
العربيه (Arabic)
â€Â?(الاسم) صØÂه, ازدهار, رخاء, نخب يشرب ÙÂ?ي صØÂه امرءâ€Â?
עברית (Hebrew)‬
n. - ‮ברי×�ות
on April 6th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Cassandra: I agree that Bill O’Reilly is an ass, but you do realize that that transcript was made up, right? It was posted in December 2005 and is dated January 2006.
on April 6th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Cassandra: I agree that Bill O’Reilly is an ass, but you do realize that that transcript was made up, right? It was posted in December 2005 and is dated January 2006.
Doh!! Ok, I never said that I was observant… Thanks for pointing this out!! I was wondering why the hell I didn’t hear about this last year, since I was a soldier in the “Christmas War.” LOL!
on April 7th, 2006 at 2:28 am
When someone says it to me, I either just half-smile, or say “No Thanks”.
on April 7th, 2006 at 9:55 am
We either ignore it completely, offer a tissue if necessary, say “Good one!” - you know, if it was a particularly good one - or get completely goofy and say “Farfugnugen”. The kids just lose it and start giggling. Heh. :)
on April 7th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Yes, the O’Reilly post was satirical…but if it’s any comfort, the very first commenter (who happens to be a good friend of mine) also thought it was real. Glad you enjoyed it.
(And for what it’s worth, my parents raised us saying ‘Gesundheit’…and they’re both ministers.)
on April 7th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Tom, thanks for coming by and commenting. Excellent job on the O’Reilly bit, and I’m so glad to know that it was satire. :-)
on April 8th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
Because this is an O’Reilly factor exclusive, we are breaking a story here that nobody in the mainstream media has the guts to touch.
I know the O’Reilly thing is a satire, but it’s how these xians really are about trivial things. They blow things way out or proportion and their persecution complex kicks in over the simplest things.
I sit next to a lady at work who is a minister’s wife and she sneezed several times an hour..quite annoying because everyone around us makes sure they say “gawd bless you” just because they think she is holy or something.
I think some of our customs are quite bizarre. Someone has an uncontrollable bodily function and the rest of us are required to give a response to it or WE are being impolite??? THE SNEEZER should be required to say “EXCUSE ME” just as if they had farted since it is the same thing…different ends of the body.
on April 12th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
stardust1954 said:
“but it’s how these xians really are about trivial things. They blow things way out or proportion and their persecution complex kicks in over the simplest things.”
Really? Well there are about 20 posts including written in several languages about how to avoid something as benign as “bless you”. Sounds like a trivial complex to me.
BTW, the bless you thing comes from a pagan belief that you would rid your body of spirits when you sneezed so saying “bless you” was an affirmation of a blessing already given not the request or granting of one. It is definitely NOT Christian.
As a Christian, I try to avoid saying “Bless you” over a sneeze. It makes no sense at all.
on April 13th, 2006 at 6:53 am
Ed said:
“Really? Well there are about 20 posts including written in several languages about how to avoid something as benign as “bless you”. Sounds like a trivial complex to me.”
Ed, you must not have read my post. It’s about being polite to the silly Christians (and other people who just don’t use their brains to think about what they are saying). I was just pointing out other ways to be polite. In other languages, notice that it’s translated into “health” and is not about blessings.
BTW, the bless you thing comes from a pagan belief that you would rid your body of spirits when you sneezed so saying “bless you” was an affirmation of a blessing already given not the request or granting of one. It is definitely NOT Christian.
Bullshit. While no one knows exactly why people started saying “bless you,” I have never seen anything pointing towards Pagans. This is the most popular theory:
The custom of saying “God bless you” after a sneeze was begun literally as a blessing. Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 AD) ascended to the Papacy just in time for the start of the plague (his successor succumbed to it). Gregory […] called for litanies, processions and unceasing prayer for God’s help and intercession. Columns marched through the streets chanting, “Kyrie Eleison” (Greek for “Lord have mercy”). When someone sneezed, they were immediately blessed (”God bless you!”) in the hope that they would not subsequently develop the plague.
Also, look here.
on July 11th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Lol. The whole thought that someone would be upset about it makes me laugh. I suppose if someone is simple minded enough to think that all of the marvels of creation came about on their own I shouldn’t be surprised by what they would be offended at, but still…
In any case go read up on chaos theory and quantum physics to learn about how order doesn’t happen, chaos happens naturally. Oh and read up on the interaction of complex immuno-genetics and try to justify those things “just coming about” or even just the fact that hydrogen bonds form when water freezes so that ice is larger than the same amount of unfrozen water allowing it to float. Even that one tiny detail would cause our planet to be uninhabitable. In any case I rant only because I found your blog while I was looking for even more languages to say god bless you in through Google.
God bless and keep you, we will pray for you in my family.
Casey
on September 10th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Could we do `Cover your face you dirty person?`
on October 28th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Thank you for clarifying the meaning of salud/salut/salute for me! While my husband & I are not athiests, we are not Christians either. He grew up Jehovahs Witness and I, Catholic. We don’t use phrases and words like “God bless you”, “God damn it”, etc. The other day someone asked me where did the word “salud” come from and to be honest, I wasn’t 100% sure. I’d heard it used while dining with some Mexican friend years ago and my husband has used regularly around me but I had no idea what the meaning was or where it originated from (or at least what language I was using). As I was reading this forum, I heard it in the background, used by Bobby Flay on the Food Network. Anyway, now I can confidently use the word with my cube-mates at work when they go on their sneezing fits. Thank you!
Darlene