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2001-9-28 22:30:00 出處: 作者: 閱讀 3553 次
Saying "God Bless You" to a Sneezer
When you sneeze, Americans would say"God Bless You" to you. In many European cultures, sneezing traditionally is associated with death and Americans believe that you are very close to death when you sneeze, because sneezing can expel the soul, and thus life will escape from the body. So they say "God Bless You" to a sneezer as a charm against the danger of the moment. Neglecting this magical words could mean that the sneezer would end up in the next world.
However, many peoples around the world are cheered by hearing someone sneeze. The Maori of New Zealand believe that the creator god Tiki sneezed life into the first human being; the Zulus of southern Africa take the sneeze as the sign of a kind-hearted spirit; and the ancient Hebrews identified sneezing with life, because they recognized that the dead never sneeze. Some American Indian peoples say that a good sneeze clears the brain.
NOTES:
expel 驅逐,排出
Maori 居住於紐西蘭的毛利人
Tiki 波利尼西亞神話中的人類的始祖,創造第一個人的神
Zulu 居住於非洲南部的祖魯人
Hebrew 希伯來人
Identify 認為同一,視為相等 |
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