It happens every day; you are in the middle of a quiet room when you feel this weird tickle. Then five seconds before it happens, you realize you’re going to sneeze. In those five seconds, you have to make a decision: Do you quickly turn away and sneeze out loud? Do you muffle the sneeze by blowing it in your head (and get that light-headed feeling)? Do you use your arm or elbow, or do you use your hand? Those five seconds make a big difference.
Your first choice when sneezing could be to let it out. But, when you sneeze out loud, what will happen when you make a weird noise? Will people laugh or find you gross? There are a couple options here. You could choose to be polite and sneeze in your elbow. This can reduce the number of germs that you are about to spew all over. Or, you could choose to sneeze in your hand, but if you do, wash your hands after please! We all don’t need to get sick. But most importantly, if you choose to sneeze out loud, don’t make a noise when you sneeze. It is preventable, believe it or not, you just don’t use your vocal cords, just let the air come out! That way, although you are still making a noise, it won’t freak people out and make them look around. Let’s be honest, the noises are much more distracting than the actual sneeze.
Your other choice when sneezing could be to hold it in. But, when doing that, you end up sneezing in your head. It sounds bizarre, but I’m sure everyone has experienced an in head sneeze before, and it hurts! What’s even weirder is that you almost taste the sneeze. I can’t be alone in saying that! My grandma always tells me, when I sneeze inside my head, “You just killed 500 brain cells, Brittany, don’t do that!” Ha ha, I tend to believe her because it’s after the sneeze that I feel dizzy and probably did kill brain cells!
But let’s be honest, there is another aspect to sneezing that we are all confused about. Are you supposed to excuse yourself, or let someone excuse you?
I was taught growing up that when someone sneezes; you said, “God bless you,” as a common courtesy. Also, sneezes can be a sign of sickness, so you are blessing someone to get better. But, today, most of us say gableshew, Gesundheit, or eww. It gets awkward though when you go to say that to someone, when they start saying excuse me, or in my case, blessing myself wishes to get well.
Sneezing doesn’t have to be awkward, but it is when you really think about it. What is the correct “prim and proper” to sneezing? Is there even one? These are the things I think about when I am in the idle of philosophy and we are supposed to be philosophizing and someone sneezes. Like what is the etiquette? Too bad there isn’t a class on that.
