Why must people be blessed whey they sneeze?

Hello Manong, Whenever I sneeze in front of my dear friend, she will wish me God Bless you! If happen I sneeze 2 times, she will wish me twice, LOL. I don't know why and what meaning it is, but I only know she is a Christian, is that anything related to the religion? Hope to see more response and get more to know on this curios topic. Thanks for this nice discussion!

People say God Bless you because sneezing was one of the first signs of the plague and others believed that the soul left the body. Here's something you may be interested in. When children sing "ring around the rosy" they are actually singing about the plaque. Ring around the rosy was the the blister that came out. A Pocket full of posies was because people thought that putting certain flowers would help and all fall down needs no explanation.

What I always heard was that in past times a sneeze was considered the soul trying to leave the body or the devil trying to get in and saying "God bless you" would stop this happening. I've also heard that saying "Thank you" after the "bless you" kills a fairy and you have to clap to bring it back to life. There's a lot of nutty customs that have survived in our culture!

That just doesn't work in my country here. But, i believe this should be have great meaning when people do that.. Just say bless u! Many blessings and happy lotting! Lol

Back in the day, like WAY back when people still burnt witches at the stake many thought that the act of sneezing was the bodies way of expelling demons from the body. So naturally people you shout Bless you because they thought of it as a way of being "blessed" and having the demon removed.