“Bless you” after a sneeze does not have a single proven origin, but several overlapping historical and religious explanations exist. Most relate to health fears and spiritual protection.
Main historical theory
The most commonly cited origin links “God bless you” to times of plague in Europe, especially around the 6th century and later outbreaks, when a sneeze was seen as an early sign of deadly illness. Saying “bless you” functioned as a short prayer asking for divine protection for someone who might soon become very sick.
Older cultural roots
Customs of acknowledging a sneeze go back at least to ancient Rome, where people used protective phrases like “Jupiter preserve you” rather than “bless you.” Over time, as Christianity became dominant in Europe, these protective wishes shifted into explicitly religious blessings such as “God bless you.”
Spiritual and folk beliefs
Medieval and early modern folklore sometimes claimed that sneezing could expel the soul or open the body to evil spirits, so a blessing would keep the soul safe or keep spirits out. Other stories tied the custom to the belief that certain sneezing-related diseases were often fatal, so the blessing was both a health wish and a spiritual safeguard.
Modern usage
Today, in English-speaking cultures “bless you” is mostly a polite, automatic response rather than a literal prayer, similar in function to saying “Gesundheit” (“health”) in German or “salud” in Spanish. Even though people no longer associate every sneeze with plague or spirits, the phrase persists as a small gesture of concern and good will.
