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Superstitions Why So Persistent? - Condensed from AWAKE!* |
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Why is Friday the 13th believed to be a bad day, and that the 13th floor of a building is a dangerous place to be in? |
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IT HAPPENS everywhere –– at work, at school, on public transportation, and on the street. You sneeze, and people you’ve never met, mere passers-bys say: " God bless you" or simply "Bless you." There are similar expressions in many languages. In German the response is "Gesundheit." Arabs say "Yarhamak Allah," and some South Pacific Polynesians say "Tihei mauri ora." |
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Believing that it is simply common courtesy rooted in social etiquette, you may have given little thought to why people say this. Yet, the expression is rooted in superstition. Moira Smith, librarian at the Folklore Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A., says of the expression: "It comes from the idea that you are sneezing out your soul." To say "God bless" is, in effect, asking God to restore it. |
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Of course, most people would probably agree that to believe that the soul escapes your body during a sneeze is irrational. Not surprisingly, therefore, Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines superstition as "a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation." |
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©
"Theosophical Digest" (4th Quarter, 2000) published by
Theosophical Publishing House, 1 Iba Street, Quezon City, Philippines.
Website: www.info.com.ph/~tspeace/tspweb.htm. Reprinted with
permission. |
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