The dancing city: Dance until you die

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Throughout history, humanity has been facing countless viruses which caused plenty of lethal epidemics such as Plagues, Cholera and recently the Coronavirus. But have you ever thought that dancing, a simple way to celebrate and express enjoyment, can also turn to a deadly pandemic? Well, about 502 years ago, that was just the case in Strasbourg, Alsace (currently in france).

In july 1518, the locals of Strasbourg were about to face one of the weirdest plagues humanity has ever witnessed: The dancing plague, a hysterical mass dancing mania made people dance for continuous days nonstop until many of them collapsed dead! It all started when a woman named "Frau Troffea" went to the street and started dancing without a break. After few days, a group of 30 person joined her at this crazy fatal "party", but the worse is yet to come. In August of the same year, the pandemic spread even more, making 400 people dancing day and night, some of whom died because of heart attacks, Apoplexy and of course exhaustion.

There are many theories trying to explain what really happened back then. The first one claims that it was a mass psychosis due to the high stress caused by the poverty, starvation and diseases the region was dealing with. A second theory suggests that the victims were food poisoned because of ergot fungi, but it's hard to imagine someone poisoned and able to dance for days. Another theory made by a saint says that god was mad at them and decided to curse the city...

For some reason, doctors at that time thought the only cure was to let the dancers just dance to get rid of " the negative energy" they have, even encouraged them to keep dancing by paying some musicians to play music, making the situation even worse than it already was. The following days nothing really changed until September 1518, when the pandemic vanished mysteriously just the same way it started.

Clearly, we have alot of missing parts here, as any other incident in the midieval era, but the sure thing is it wasn't just a fairy tale since this case was mentioned in the historical records of that year, besides, there is also some records about similar events in Germany, Switzerland and Holland.

That was the story of the dancing plague, a vague event from history. And what makes history exciting are those kind of mysteries.

Do you have another theory? if so go ahead and share it in the comments. Thanks for reading!

*image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hondius_brugje.jpg

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Comments

i loved this article when i started reading it was pleasant surprice

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4 years ago

it is indeed. im glad that you loved it. thanks for reading

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4 years ago

St.Vitus Dance, yes this is a true story. There were outbreaks during several centuries and many witnesses recorded it. The outbreak in Strasbourg in 1518 was the peak of this "epidemic". It's anybody's guess what it really was that caused it. Good article and an interesting subject.

And I agree with you @hamedbkh, that the mysteries of history are interesting.

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4 years ago

Thank you so much. i'm very happy that you like this. I might write similar articles in the future. thanks for reading! :D

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4 years ago

What an interesting story! Perhaps, something mysterious happened to them. However, they got over it. I strongly believe that Covid-19 will soon be a thing of past.

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4 years ago

everything in this life has a start and an end. Even epidemics. so yeah we all hope for the ending of coronavirus. thank you for reading! stay safe!

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4 years ago

Thank you for the reply. I appreciate it a lot. It is an encouragement. Let's hope it will end soon.

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4 years ago

it will. just have a strong faith and never lose hope. the situation is getting better in many countries everyday. we need to be careful and thats it. that's what i think

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4 years ago

Thank you for the reply. It is appreciated. Keep feeding us with information on regular basis. Thank you.

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4 years ago

Indeed, it is an interesting and a good story but I have not see or withness someone who dance and die before.

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4 years ago

lol of course you won't! this happened 502 years ago. and none knows exactly why it happened. thanks for reading!

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4 years ago

[Removed comment]

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4 years ago

Lovely writeup keep it up

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4 years ago

much appreciated. thanks alot for your kind words. thanks for reading!

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4 years ago

That's an interesting story. You encouraged me to read more about it in Wikipedia. Thanks a lot.

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4 years ago

you are very welcome. please do! it's a very intresting story really. im thinking about making more articles like this one. thanks for reading and for the tip! :D

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4 years ago

Thanks you for sharing... a dancing plague... wow this is really mysterious how can someone dance without being able to stop... its just really sounds weird...it almost sounds like a fairy tale

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4 years ago

That's what I personally thought when i first knew about it. But it's not a fairy tail, it's a real story that exists even in history records of that century. Also other places has witnessed the same weird event.

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4 years ago

This is soo bizarre..never heard of such stories before..interesting though

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4 years ago

It is bizarre. History is full of mysteries and this is one of them. Mysteries are always interesting nevertheless. Thanks for your comment.

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4 years ago

Thats a good work there. Dance to death! I really enjoyed it. So insughful & informative. I love your work

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4 years ago

thank you for your nice comment!

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4 years ago