Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

Dancing Plague of 1518


dannybr0ot4l

Recommended Posts

I don't know if this has been posted before but to sum it up in 1518, nearly 400 people danced themselves to death.

"- In July of 1518, a woman referred to as Frau Troffea stepped into a narrow street in Strasbourg, France and began a fervent dancing vigil that lasted between four and six days. By the end of the week, 34 others had joined her and, within a month, the crowd of dancing, hopping and leaping individuals had swelled to 400."

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/01/d...th-mystery.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
  • Replies 15
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • dannybr0ot4l

    5

  • Godsnmbr1

    2

  • Antinomy

    1

  • Blink4567

    1

It's so funny that it happened in France.

xD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a whole site bookmarked of weird and horror wiki pages, everything from unsolved murders to the dancing plague.

It's good stuff :)

Link please.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rave?

Hahahaha, Watching people in that day in age spinning fire would be awsome! I bet it was a very powerful empath, or the guy from Silver thongs thread!

Silver Thong starts party, I love this vid LOL

Edited by Jessem
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the link, should keep me busy for awhile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the link, should keep me busy for awhile.

There's definitely a lot of interesting stuff on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

This doesn't have anything to do with St. Vitus' Dance does it? This apparently uncontrolled, jerky dancing behavior has sometimes been attributed (at least partially) to ergot poisoning.

There's an interesting article in Wikipedia under "Dancing mania" that discusses this type of "plague". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This doesn't have anything to do with St. Vitus' Dance does it? This apparently uncontrolled, jerky dancing behavior has sometimes been attributed (at least partially) to ergot poisoning.

There's an interesting article in Wikipedia under "Dancing mania" that discusses this type of "plague". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania

Well in my opinion, in a case as unusual as this nothing can be rules out but I doubt it would be St. Vitus' Dance because it was hundreds of people. On the wiki it has a couple of possible explanations, and to me the most believable is

Mass psychogenic illness

Historian John Waller thinks that the dancing epidemic was caused by mass psychogenic illness (MPI), a manifestation of mass hysteria that is often preceded by extreme levels of psychological distress. Waller states that famine had been prevalent in the region for some time, caused by very cold winters, very hot summers, crop frosts, and violent hailstorms.[1] Mass deaths followed from malnutrition, and those who survived were forced to kill their farm animals, take out loans, and perhaps even beg in the streets. In addition to food shortages, diseases such as smallpox, syphilis, leprosy, and "the English sweat" (a new disease) afflicted the populace. This series of events might have triggered the MPI.

---

On another note Chorea (St. Vitus' Dance) is very interesting and very disturbing sounding. I wonder if this may have been the cause of some "possessions" throughout time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Definitely weird.

Thanks for the link danny--seriously cool.

Rave, indeed. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm surprised that nobody's ever (yet) thought to describe the Dance Marathons of the Great Depression as the "Dancing Mania of 1932."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.