Still Waters Posted June 27, 2016 #1 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Six-hundred and forty two years ago today, citizens in the German city of Aachen started to pour out of their houses and into the streets where they began to writhe and whirl uncontrollably. This was the first major outbreak of dancing plague or choreomania and it would spread across Europe in the next several years. To this day, experts aren't sure what caused the frenzy, which could drive those who danced to exhaustion. The outbreak in Germany was called St. John's dance, but it wasn't the first appearance of the mania or the last, according to The Black Death and The Dancing Mania, originally published in 1888. In the book, Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker imaginatively describes the spectacle of St. John's dance as follows: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/strange-case-dancing-mania-struck-germany-six-centuries-ago-today-180959549/?no-ist 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claire. Posted June 27, 2016 #2 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Stress induced psychosis for sure. There was also that laughing epidemic that went on for 18 months in Tanzania. Both are freaky when you think about it. Can't decide though if I would want to dance or laugh myself to death. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelina Posted June 27, 2016 #3 Share Posted June 27, 2016 That is a creepy thought indeed, just thinking about people dancing non-stop. As for deciding if I would want to dance or laugh myself to death, I'd go for the laughing in all honesty. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simplybill Posted June 27, 2016 #4 Share Posted June 27, 2016 My dancing would have caused everyone to stop dancing, and then start laughing. A double whammy. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
universal skeptic Posted June 27, 2016 #5 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Oh Carol, don't let him steal your heart away. I'm gonna learn to dance if it takes me all night and day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeastieRunner Posted June 27, 2016 #6 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Definitely not the stuffy, snooty, stuck-up town from Footloose. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolinacottontail Posted June 28, 2016 #7 Share Posted June 28, 2016 Sounds like Jazzercise gone wrong. Wouldn't that be a creepy premise for an episode of your favorite HBO show?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveDuet Posted June 28, 2016 #8 Share Posted June 28, 2016 I started a joke....that had the whole world laughingggg... wait...I'm mixing the lyrics. :D 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 28, 2016 #9 Share Posted June 28, 2016 I'd never heard of it in Germany before... I was familiar with the "tarantella" - the "dancing sickness" in Italy at about the same time though... Weird stuff... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperdyer Posted June 28, 2016 #10 Share Posted June 28, 2016 Let's see... early disco fever? Riverdance? Being in Germany maybe a polka-a-thon. I know, an alien experiment to test the stamina of the human body. Yeah, that's it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highdesert50 Posted June 29, 2016 #11 Share Posted June 29, 2016 Perhaps a pathogen in a common food source such as regional crops or even a bread mold induced the euphoria. Reminds me of beer ... for generations, helping men to dance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nnicolette Posted June 29, 2016 #12 Share Posted June 29, 2016 Reminds me of a pincher bug i saw a couple days ago. It was walking in circles. I came back 7 hours later and it was still in the same spot walking in circles. Made me think about how scary it would be to malfunction and repeat an action until you die, kinda like this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rattpoison Posted June 29, 2016 #13 Share Posted June 29, 2016 I read about this in The Book of Lists 2 years ago as a child and have been fascinated by it ever since. Seems that people tried to play music to soothe the dancers but that backfired. Apparently dousing them with cold water worked on occasion. That would be pretty scary, though, having these people come dancing through your town as people you know could "join in." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyDolly Posted June 29, 2016 #14 Share Posted June 29, 2016 I've heard about this too. Its really weird. I haven't heard anything about this occuring in England ,Scotland,Ireland or Wales at the time. Eventually maybe they might find out the cause,.However there haven't been more of these thank goodness. I'll have to look and see if any of these occured in Bavaria or the Black Forest region as I have relatives there to this day. I guess my family was just happy they survived the Black Death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TripGun Posted June 30, 2016 #15 Share Posted June 30, 2016 (edited) Maybe over time the story has been misconstrued. Perhaps it became "dancing" when it was originally self-stimulation. Edited June 30, 2016 by TripGun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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