The Dancing Plague

Do you know someone who was so passionate about dancing that they danced to their death? This thought in itself seems unbelievable. Surprisingly enough this kind of event has happened in the past. This is one of the strangest events that took place in the course of history and science still seeks explanations for why such an event occurred, an event which does not have any scientific backing.

This event took place in the year 1518 during the medieval era. it was named as the dancing plague. You must have heard about disasters of the black death which occurred before the dancing plague in the 1340s. It was caused due to the fleas living on the back of black rats which killed more than 50 million people in Europe wiping out 60% of their population.

But unlike the black plague, the outbreak of the dancing plague took place in a very unusual manner. This happened when out of the blue a lady named Frau Troffea started dancing on a warm day in the streets of Strasbourg, France. Her dancing continued for a week. And this is where things took an odd turn. Slowly the people around her also started dancing. This behaviour grew so contagious that by the end of the week 400 people had joined this dancing mania. Just imagine people from your city vigorously dancing like there was no tomorrow! And I don't mean this in a good way.

Soon the authorities in France became concerned as they were unable to stop it and as it was spreading at an unimaginable pace. The people continued dancing uncontrollably day and night. The doctors tried to figure out the reason behind this eccentric behaviour and why has it affected everyone collectively. For some bizarre reason, the authorities thought the only way to stop this hysterical behaviour was more dancing! A big stage and musicians were arranged and people were encouraged to dance even more. And for obvious reasons, this did not work and things got worse.

People were helpless as had been dancing for weeks now, unable to stop themselves. Soon exhaustion started kicking in which was then followed by illnesses. Slowly people started falling ill and many of them were hit by heart strokes. This went on for about 2 months. It is said that the dancing plague managed to kill at least 15 people a day.

After the idea of " more dancing" had miserably failed. The authorities thought that it was probably a curse cast by a mystic force because of sinful acts of gambling, prostitution. The immoral people were driven out of the city. The dancers were then taken to the Vitus ( a holy being ) to pray for their liberation. Within the span of a few weeks, the dancing declined and people were slowly back to normal. Till date, no one knows what caused this kind of unusual chaos amongst the people. It ended just as how it began. Which is still a puzzle.

The modern age scientists and researchers have tried to know the reason behind this. Some say that this was caused by indigestion due to Ergot which grew on the crops. Indigestion due to ergot causes hallucinations, and tremors. But this clearly did not answer why they kept dancing for days. This was a Mass hysteria ( where a large group of people unknowingly get affected by or exhibit similar emotional or anxiety or extreme excitement symptoms ). But there is an important aspect to be taken into consideration. During 1518 Strasbourg was going through a hard time. There was a lack of food, money, famine which had badly struck the place and people frequently fell ill as well.

Mass hysteria if often caused due too severe stress conditions and this place definitely showed some people with stressful signs. It was a time when people were quite superstitious. They thought that they had been cursed by St. Vitus who cursed people with dance mania.

The researchers then assumed that this might have been a psychological illness. They considered both the aspects ( The stressful surroundings and St.Vitus’s curse ) that affected people mentally and what they perceived and learnt from their surroundings at that time, which could have possibly been the reason for the trigger.

This event was just like other mass hysterias that took place in the past like the laughing plague, the meowing nuns etc. And again the reason behind why it happened? no one knows. That question has still remained unanswered.