Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 170, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1920 — “GOD BLESS YOU’S” MEANING [ARTICLE]

“GOD BLESS YOU’S” MEANING

Expression of Solicitude That Can Be Traced Back to the Decline of Athena. The Greeks and Romans had their •Long life to you!” Gesundhelt! is now verboten. But we still say “Sante” and “God bless you!” after a sneeze. This expression of solicitude can be traced back to the decline of Athens. One of the terrible devastating plagues which darken the pages of European history was raging in the famous city. The flower of Greece, her foremost writers and artists, the founders of much of our modern culture, were ruthlessly cut down. The dead piled high, and dally Athenian courage was taxed.to the fullest. But to every home where lay a-wictim, the elixir of hope, the rainbow of promise, was the sneeze, for It Indicated to the watchers that the danger was passed, that the patient would recover. A few centuries later another epidemic assailed Europe, but this time the sneeze, being a symptom of the malady, was a bad omen. In this age of witches, goblins, medicine men and leeches superstition flourished. Some of the most intellectual minds of the time accredited charms and soothsayers. It was therefore nothing extraordinary for the pope to decree the exclamation “God bless you!" by anyone who heard a sneeze. This was supposed to combat its evil powers and prevent the spread of the disease. And “God bless you!” with Its kindly human interest hhs come down through the ages.