Why do we still say “bless you” when someone sneezes?

To me, it’s just common courtesy in the same way that I say “Thank you.” when someone holds the door open for me. You can’t leave a sneeze hanging any more than you can leave a door opener holding the door without acknowledgment of their friendly deed.

Unlike most people it seems, I actually have given thought to this custom over the course of my life. When I decided that I was an atheist, I nearly gave up the practice. I tried saying nothing when someone sneezed, but the awkward silence that followed was too much. You just have to say something, so I decided on “Gesundheit” instead. Even though it’s still a superstitious practice and I’m not all that fond of superstition, the fact that it simply means “health” in German makes it less godly. Sometimes, I’ll drop the “god” and just say “bless you.”

No one really knows why we started saying “God bless you” after a sneeze. There are variant theories; a lot of them stem from the time of the bubonic plague. 75 million people died from the plague before the days of antibiotics, so I can see how Pascal’s Wager would come into play here; it can’t possibly hurt to say “God bless you” and it might even help, so there’s no reason not to do so.

The practice has lost its original meaning over the course of time in much the same way that we no longer celebrate Halloween as an exercise to keep demons away. Most people, even the hardcore religious, no longer think that a sneeze has anything at all to do with the devil, but we still go on saying it anyway. It’s one of those things that polite society accepts as polite without having any foundation for doing so.

I’m alright with that. Even with the religious component, I still say it. I say it, not out of superstition, but because it’s the polite thing to do. I say it because this society of ours is sorely lacking in politeness these days and every little bit helps.