With Thanksgiving behind us, the focus now turns to Christmas. Besides rushing to be the first to snap up the best deals on sales items for Christmas presents, people start decorating their houses inside and outside and putting up Christmas trees.
In the United States, there was a celebration in 1621 by the Pilgrims in New England sharing a feast with their Native American neighbors, who had made it possible for them to survive the harsh wilderness. Thanksgiving was lost for many years, until President Lincoln made it a national holiday to be held the last Thursday in November in 1863.
“Bless you” or “God bless you” is something people automatically say when they hear somebody sneeze. This practice dates back to at least AD 77. Some people suggest that it came from the folk belief that a person’s soul could be thrown from their body when they sneeze, thus opening to an invasion by the devil or evil spirits. In this case, “bless you” is a type of shield against evil. Other people have suggested that in the past people thought the heart stopped beating during a sneeze, and thus “bless you” encourages the heart to keep beating.