A Turkish blessing offered to the hands that cooked your meal, fixed your problem, or made you something — gratitude tied directly to physical effort.
When someone cooks for you in Turkey, serves you tea, fixes something in your home, or hands you something they've made themselves, there's a specific way to say thank you — one that acknowledges not just the result, but the physical effort behind it. You say "ellerine sağlık," which translates literally to "health to your hands." It's a blessing directed at the specific body part that did the work.
This isn't a recent invention or internet creation. The phrase has been part of Turkish conversation for over a century, passed down through families and communities as the standard way to thank someone for hands-on labor. It sits alongside other body-part blessings in Turkish: "gözüne sağlık" (health to your eyes) for visual work, "diline sağlık" (health to your tongue) for kind words. The pattern reveals something about Turkish culture — gratitude isn't generic, it's directed, personal, connected to the physical reality of how the person helped you.
You'll hear both "eline sağlık" (singular) and "ellerine sağlık" (plural) used interchangeably. Native speakers don't follow strict rules about which to use — it's personal preference and regional variation, not grammar. What matters is recognizing the hands that worked, offering them health in return.