where did the phrase god bless you originate
God bless you
The practice of blessing someone who sneezes dates as far back as at least AD 77 , although it is far older than most specific explanations can account for . Some have offered an explanation suggesting that people once held the folk belief that a person 's soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed , that sneezing otherwise opened the body to invasion by the Devil or evil spirits , or that sneezing was the body 's effort to force out an invading evil presence . In these cases , `` God bless you '' or `` bless you '' is used as a sort of shield against evil . The Irish Folk story `` Master and Man '' by Thomas Crofton Croker , collected by William Butler Yeats , describes this variation . Moreover , in the past some people may have thought that the heart stops beating during a sneeze , and that the phrase `` God bless you '' encourages the heart to continue beating . 
The practice of blessing someone who sneezes dates as far back as at least AD 77 , although it is far older than most specific explanations can account for . Some have offered an explanation suggesting that people once held the folk belief that a person 's soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed , that sneezing otherwise opened the body to invasion by the Devil or evil spirits , or that sneezing was the body 's effort to force out an invading evil presence . In these cases , `` God bless you '' or `` bless you '' is used as a sort of shield against evil . The Irish Folk story `` Master and Man '' by Thomas Crofton Croker , collected by William Butler Yeats , describes this variation . Moreover , in the past some people may have thought that the heart stops beating during a sneeze , and that the phrase `` God bless you '' encourages the heart to continue beating .
Some have offered an explanation suggesting that people once held the folk belief that a person 's soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed , that sneezing otherwise opened the body to invasion by the Devil or evil spirits , or that sneezing was the body 's effort to force out an invading evil presence . In these cases , `` God bless you '' or `` bless you '' is used as a sort of shield against evil . Moreover , in the past some people may have thought that the heart stops beating during a sneeze , and that the phrase `` God bless you '' encourages the heart to continue beating .
Some have offered an explanation suggesting that people once held the folk belief that a person 's soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed , that sneezing otherwise opened the body to invasion by the Devil or evil spirits , or that sneezing was the body 's effort to force out an invading evil presence . In these cases , `` God bless you '' or `` bless you '' is used as a sort of shield against evil . Moreover , in the past some people may have thought that the heart stops beating during a sneeze , and that the phrase `` God bless you '' encourages the heart to continue beating .
People once held the folk belief that a person's soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed, that sneezing otherwise opened the body to invasion by the Devil or evil spirits, or that sneezing was the body's effort to force out an invading evil presence. ``God bless you'' or ``bless you'' is used as a sort of shield against evil. Moreover, in the past some people may have thought that the heart stops beating during a sneeze, and that the phrase ``God bless you'' encourages the heart to continue beating.
Some have offered an explanation suggesting that people once held the folk belief that a person 's soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed , that sneezing otherwise opened the body to invasion by the Devil or evil spirits , or that sneezing was the body 's effort to force out an invading evil presence . In these cases , `` God bless you '' or `` bless you '' is used as a sort of shield against evil . Moreover , in the past some people may have thought that the heart stops beating during a sneeze , and that the phrase `` God bless you '' encourages the heart to continue beating .