Monday, May 30, 2011

The Sneeze! Musquodoboit Harbour, NS is latest star of story

Canadian flag in Halifax, located 45 km west of Musquodoboit Harbour, NS
Photo by Sue Frause

A Canadian friend now living in my hometown forwarded the below tale to me. It's (supposedly) a true story, and (supposedly) happened at Eastern Shore District High School in Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia.
They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-two students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With their rich, maroon gowns flowing and the traditional capes, they looked almost as grown-up as they felt. Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and moms freely brushed away tears.

This class would not pray during the commencement, not by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it. The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.

The speeches were nice, but they were routine, until the final speech eceived a standing ovation. A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then, it happened. All 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly sneezed.
The student on stage simply looked at the audience and said, "God bless you!" and walked off the stage. The audience exploded into applause. This graduating class had found a unique way to invoke God's blessing on their future with or without the court's approval.
I checked with snopes.com, and it turns out that it's "based on a true story." Over the past decade, the location of where the incident happened has changed, as have the details of the story. Read the full snopes.com explanation here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Definitely not true.
This has never happened at Eastern Shore District High School!!!

Eat Play Sleep said...

Do you or did you go to high school there? If it didn't happen, must be one of those (harmless) urban folk legends.

Arwin said...

For one thing, the school gowns are blue. Also, graduation takes place at the local hockey rink. Still, I can appreciate the sentiment behind the story.

Jon Nolet
ESDH - Class of 2001

Anonymous said...

That thing is constantly bothering me. If anybody is able to answer that question, then I would be very grateful :) So what do you think ? How many psychological disorders are there? Thank you very much for valuable information :)

_____________
podagra dna moczanowa dieta dna moczanowa a ból stawów podagra

Anonymous said...

Whether it is true or not, it exposes the foolishness of telling people NOT to talk about God or not to Pray in Schools - it is a lovely story and I appreciate the way it makes us think

Burrowing Owl Estate Winery earns Canadian Wine Industry Award of Distinction

Burrowing Owl Estate Winery in Oliver, British Columbia British Columbia's Burrowing Owl Estate Winery was awarded top honors at the 20...