How/why did saying things like bless you or gesundheit start? And when?

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I was told this explanation in the 1970s by someone who was told it in the 1930s. So unless Groening is a time traveler, it didn’t originate with the Simpsons.

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bless-you/ is a good read; the truth is that Europeans and Middle Easterners have been doing it for so long (at least 2000 years) that the reason is lost to time; now it’s purely tradition/cultural. Early writings record that it was done, but not why.