The Official Turkish Sneezing Guide
Are you ready for cold, flu and allergy season in Turkey…?
When cold and flu season came around while I was growing up in the United States, if a friend/relative sneezed, it was traditional for passersby to say Health! Prayed God bless you! Prayed Gesundheit! (The latter is used more often by German relatives on my mother’s side.) If a friend/family member sneezed multiple times, we kept repeating Health! Prayed Gesundheit! And, about the only response the sneeze could utter was a teary eye. Thanks.
Where Peri grew up in Turkey, there was quite a different tradition for the same sneezing scenario when cold and flu season rolled around. If someone sneezed at Peri’s house, the most common response from passersby was ok yasa! (Long live! or To your long life!)
And the sneeze would traditionally respond sen de gör (May you also see long life).
But, for multiple sneezes (up to 3), the sneeze etiquette at Peri’s house got more elaborate, and it’s still pretty much the same today.
First sneeze:
spectator says Çok Yaşa! (Long life!).
sneeze says sen de gör (You too).
Second sneeze:
spectator says Binyasa! (1,000 Long Lives!).
sneeze says sen de gör Prayed
hep beraber (Let it be true for both/all of us).
Third sneeze:
spectator says In Bin Yasa! (10,000 Long Lives!).
sneeze says sen de gör
Prayed hep beraber.
If you stick to the above, you’ll be fine as far as your own Turkish sneeze etiquette is concerned. But to keep you on your toes (and make things a bit more complicated)… the following is also considered good Turkish etiquette for sneezing…
First sneeze:
spectator says Çok Yaşa!
sneeze says Sen de gor.
Second sneeze:
spectator says Güzel Yaşa! (May you live to a beautiful age!).
sneeze says Sen of Gor.
Third sneeze:
spectator says Uzun Yasa! (Long Live!) and/or
torun oksa (May you caress many grandchildren).
sneeze says Hep Berber.
Why ‘God bless you’ in Turkish is not used for sneezing situations…
First of all, there is no universally agreed translation for ‘God bless you’ in Turkish. Second, the closest you can get to that meaning is the phrase ‘Allah senden razı olsun’ (May you and God be one). But that colloquial phrase is already reserved for the purpose of saying ‘Thank you’ (for a favor or a good deed), and would be quite inappropriate if it were used for a sneeze due to a cold, flu or allergy, or for a simple tickle in the mouth. nose
[Click following to access a fully illustrated HTML version of The Official Turkish Sneezing Guide.]