This morning has started out with blue clear skies. The mornings I find to be wonderful; it is nice and quite. Getting up at six am and going for a walk is an enjoyable, awakening experience. An interesting concept: in the morning, everyone I walk by says “good morning”, although if I walk in the afternoon or the evening, not a single person will say, “good afternoon or good evening”. I have found people to say “good morning” automatically.
For seven years living in the Santa Cruz area I was free from any allergy. Starting June tenth of 06, (which was my seventh year) I have been afflicted from an allergy. If and when I have a sneezing attack, I can sneeze an easy five to six times in a row. When I sneeze, I sneeze, I don’t hold back. Thus, everyone says “bless you”. Most people don’t realize I am going to sneeze more then once, around the sixth time they don’t know what to say. The concept behind this automatic saying dates way back. Nobody really knows where the comment “bless you” comes from, when a person sneezes. During the medieval years, people, due to the dogma of Christianity were very superstitious. During that time they believed, since we can’t keep our eyes open when we sneeze, and our mouth is open at the same time, a demon (lower entity) could enter. Or our spirit would leave the body and the demons (lower entities) would steal it. Thus, they blessed each other, which the automatic saying, “bless you” has preserved generation after generation, without people really even knowing why they are saying “bless you” when a person sneezes. The actual origin dates back to Pope Gregory the first (540-604) ascended to the Papacy just in time for the start of the bubonic plague in 590. It was an order to bless a person when they sneezed “God bless you” in hope they would not develop the disease. The superstitions followed.
When you were young, did you ever play “ring around the rosy”? Ring around the rosy, pockets full of posy, ashes ashes, we all fall down. This game-song is quite old, in fact it’s six centuries old. It goes back to the time of the black plague of 1347 to 1350.
This next information might be kind of gory for some readers.
Ring around the Rosy
One of the first visible signs of infection were red rings surrounding a rosy bump, all over the victim’s body.
Pocket full of Posy
A common belief of the time was that the plague was borne on “foul air.” The rationale was that people could protect themselves from the bad air by keeping their local air smelling sweet. Thus, it helped them deal with the smell of death.
Another sign of infection was the foul stench that would begin to emanate from the victim’s body as their lymph system began filling with blood. Those still mobile endeavored to mask their stench and avoid detection by carrying flowers on their person.
Ashes, Ashes,
In the terminal phases of the disease, victims would be hemorrhaging internally, sometimes triggering sneezing as it irritated the breathing passages. “Ashes” is a child’s approximation of a outburst of sneezing. In this weakened state, a victim could, and often did, sneeze their lungs out. Messy.
We all Fall Down-The End Result.
Children are resilient and ever adaptable. Imagine the children of the day, coping with the horror of the black plague. Not only people dropping like flies, but coping with the fear of adults.
Rock-a-by-baby; whats a cradle doing up in a tree in the first place?
Many phrases or concepts we see today date way back in history, which have been handed down generation after generation. Many people have no idea the origin of a saying or behavior. Thus, I find this to be a concept of life.