“Bless You”

This goes back to more superstitious times when a sneeze was believed to separate the soul from the body. To prevent the devil stealing the soul the incantation "bless you" (i.e. God bless you) was uttered to release the soul from Satan’s clutches and return it to its rightful owner.it comes from the time of the great plague. As sneezing was one of the first symptoms, and it was obvious that person would die, "bless you" (or "god blesses you") was a suitable thing to say. The practice of blessing someone who sneezes, dating as far back as at least ad 77, however, is far older than most specific explanations can account for. Gregory i became pope in ad 590 as an outbreak of the bubonic plague was reaching Rome. In hopes of fighting off the disease, he ordered unending prayer and parades of chanters through the streets. At the time, sneezing was thought to be an early symptom of the plague.