Aaachooo!

Hva sier du når noen nys? Her, i Nord Amerika vi sier "God Bless You" eller "Gesundheit!".

What do you say when someone sneezes? Here, in North America we say "God Bless You" or "Gesundheit!".

Alle si sam eller hver landet si det forskjelling?

Does everyone say the same thing, or does every country say it different?

--Joey

 

er.. I think swedes mostly say: prosit!

 

Vi sier prosit i norge også.

 

Tänk att vi är så mångspråkiga!

 

Yes, 'prosit' is Latin, and means To the good.

Which is due to the ancient belief that a sneeze forebodes some important event, and the well wisher hastens to exclaim a wish that the foreboding will be of a positive event.

A similar belief, clad in Christian terms, is behind the Anglo-Saxon wish 'God bless you'.

 

However, it is very important that you do not thank the person saying "prosit". If you do, you will kill a nisse.

 

Hva er Nisse?

--Joey

 

Wouldn't you like to know..?

 

Well, I'd like to know!

Vaddå, är det en jultomte-anställd, eller?

Anyway, that's just a silly superstition, and can safely be ignored... I mean, I didn't know about it, did I?

 

I.E. an elf...

 

Exactly, one of those little elfs or santas little helpers or whatever. I have no idea why one of them is supposed to die of you accidentally thank a person for saying 'prosit' when you sneeze, though. It is one of the many strange things I have learned from my lovely younger sister.