Don't underestimate a loud sneeze, there are so many secrets behind it!

Postscript: The Legend of Sneezing

1. Ancient Greek/Roman Period: "Omen" or Health Symbol?

Homer's Odyssey has an interesting story about sneezing. The Athenian general Xenophon gave an exciting speech before the battle, encouraging his comrades to follow him and fight the Persians to the death, and a soldier sneezed in response to his call for encouragement, and at that time, sneezing was widely considered a good sign, so the entire army went into battle to kill the enemy, but returned home. Xenophon's death is believed to be the first "omen" in history to sneeze.

2. European Religious Prayer: "May God Bless You"

In the 14th century, during the plague pandemic (i.e., the Black Death), Pope Gregory VII declared the phrase "May God bless you" as a short prayer after each sneeze to ward off the plague. But rats, the main culprits of the spread of the plague, still roamed around because the Pope and the King did nothing against rats, which directly led to the killing of a third of Europe's population by the plague.

"May God bless you," the phrase used by Christians to prevent disease, has become a common everyday phrase and is widely spread in modern Christianity.

3. Asian culture: being talked about and remembered

In some parts of Asia, China, and Japan, people think that one person sneezes for no reason, which means that other people are talking about him, and if they sneeze, people will say good things about him; if they sneeze twice, people will say bad things about him.

bibliography

[1] Laura Dean . ACHOO Syndrome . In: Medical Genetics Summaries [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Center for Biotechnology Information (US); 2012 Oct 15 [updated 2015 Jul 27].

[2] Mahmood F Bhutta 1, Harold Maxwell. Sneezing induced by sexual ideation or orgasm: an under-reported phenomenon. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2008: 101: 587–591. DOI 10.1258/jrsm.2008.080262 587

[3] Sean Setzen and Michael Platt, MD, MSc . The Dangers of Sneezing:A Review of Injuries. American Journal of Rhinology & Allergy.2019, Vol. 33(3) 331–337