Southern Blessings

Bless your Heart:

I think that phrase represents better than any, the difference in southern and northern culture. Up north, you just come right out and say things like, “Did he really do that? what an assh*&%” Many northerners add and extra cuss word to that statement to make it more descriptive.

Take that same sentence down here and add a little southern charm, and it takes on new meaning. “Did he really do that? Bless his heart.”  see? not so in your face with it! 


You can use the bless his/her heart statement in many situations:

From the urban dictionary:

Bless his/her heart

1: phrase used by Southern women to excuse themselves for speaking ill of someone else. 2: an expression of sympathy or pity. 3: a polite way to respond to an ignoramus, particularly male, who showers upon you flattering but unwanted compliments.

1: "She's as ugly as a mud-fence, bless her heart." 

2: "Well, bless your heart, that must have been terrible!" 

3: drunk fella: "I think you're beautiful! Even if you were ugly, I'd STILL think you were beautiful!" 

recipient: "...bless your heart."

Here is a great explanation of "Bless your heart" 

Is bless his heart, really an insult? Well I guess you can call it a barely-veiled criticism. It works well, it leaves the recipient with having to figure out the meaning themselves. Like I have said in past blog posts, you can get insulted down here and not even know about it until a day later when you reflect on the situation......

Like the time I was making Collard green for the first time. My Yankee tendencies came out big time ! Nothing like trying to do some deep southern cooking for the first time to snap you back to your roots. It was not too bad, just in the beginning, I was all wrong with my personal challenge to make a true southern dish. Collard greens. You see, I started my venture with this simple list:

• Collard greens 
• Pigs feet

All wrong! (damn Yankee) I had it in my head that pigs feet is what I should cook with the greens. 

I was quickly notified by a couple I was chatting with at a local park that you cook Collard greens with Ham Hocks and Neck Bones. They had a good laugh and said as I was leaving,  “Bless your heart” ….I took that one as a compliment, bless my heart.

I truly feel blessed living in the south as people here bless my heart many times. It might have something to do with the way us Yankees come across to southerners some times: 

Not to be confused with “Bless your heart” ………"Have a blessed day” is a saying you hear down here a lot.

The difference is that the person telling you this, truly wishes you a blessed day - a good day. I guess the Northern version would be the simple “Have a good day” 


I like people telling me to have a blessed day, for me, it just might be the blessing that puts me in the right direction:

Y'all have a blessed day!