How to sneeze in public
Practice sneezing at home. Aim for making your sneeze as quiet as possible. You can do it.
If one is available, Sneeze into a tissue. Throw it away immediately. As in right away. Excuse yourself and cross highways if necessary to dispose of the used tissue.
Sneeze into your elbow. Sneezes can be a surprise. You’re in public. You don’t have tissue. There are people next to you. You know it’s going to be a big one; maybe a little wet, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Lift your elbow to your nose before the sneeze is expelled and release into the crook of your arm. Excuse yourself to the restroom immediately. First to finish blowing your nose. Second, to clear any extra moisture. Third to check for anything extra hanging from your nose.
The practice of saying “Bless You”, dates back to at least 590 CE, when Pope Gregory I commanded that anyone who sneezed immediately be blessed out of fear that it was a sign they had contracted The Plague.
At one time people believed a man’s soul could be inadvertently thrust from his body by an explosive sneeze.
Conversely, the sneeze itself was the expulsion of a demon or evil spirit which had taken up residence in a person.
The heart was believed to momentarily stop during a sneeze (it doesn’t)
Yet other folks echo the theme of other superstitions about sneezes, that these expulsions are either in themselves lucky or foretell good fortune.
Finally, some see the sneeze as a blessing bestowed by the sneezer upon the sneezed-upon.
