The Most Mysterious Mass Death in History: The Dance Epidemic

500 years ago, one of the most interesting mass death cases in the world took place. Today Strasbourg A group of people in the city of France, known as caught a deadly virus. But it’s not the kind of virus you think it is.

This virus is human to dance like crazy was causing it. As you can imagine, people who dance like crazy without eating, drinking, sleeping or talking are in the end as you can imagine. was dying. So why? Let’s take a look.

How did people start dancing to death?

The whole thing happened in Strasbourg, France. on a hot summer day started. A handful of people in the squares started dancing. This handful of people had their arms swinging all the time, their bodies were still, and their clothes were soaked with sweat. Now this dance doesn’t stop and stretched until the next day.

At first, the number of people who stopped eating and drinking was small, and the tiredness and pain of these people could be seen on their faces, but still they wouldn’t stop dancing. It was too late when the governing authorities stepped in, because the dancers are not just a handful of people. It was hundreds of people.

According to the physicist Paracelsus in 1530, this dance virus in Strasbourg, in July of 1518 It started when a lonely woman came out of her house and danced for a few days, and the event spread to hundreds of people within a week.

According to the doctors of that period, why did people start dancing to death?

In this event, recorded in 1518, the number of dancers numbered in the thousands, and the crowd gathered to watch them saw a few of the dancers crash to the ground. Because people no longer stop dancing, eat, drink water and sleep was starting to die. So why?

The rich and nobles who came to the city to see the event did not enjoy this situation at all. Even writer Sebastian Brant, Ship of Fools (Ship of Fools) wrote his poem on this event. He and his high-ranking friends consulted the local doctors, and the doctors discovered that the reason for this dance was in people’s brains.They diagnosed it as a result of ‘overheated blood’.

What did the authorities decide when people were dancing to death?

High-ranking people are consequently ‘more dance!‘ they decided. They ordered the evacuation of an open-air market in Strasbourg, confiscated the guild halls, and erected a stage next to the horse fair. They directed the people who danced like crazy to these places, believing that they would get rid of the disease. Mistake even pipers and drummers were hired and people in these places, on hot summer days they kept dancing.

But it didn’t work, and people danced again until they passed out or even died. The authorities realized that they had made a mistake and banned music and dancing in public. The dancers were found in a moldy cave in the hills above the town of Saverne, near the centre. Taken to a temple dedicated to St Vitus. In the weeks that followed, most of the dancers were wild, according to the archives. stopped their movements and the epidemic ended.

Indeed, according to modern scientists, why did these people dance to death?

According to various scientists, this mysterious ‘dancing plague’, which took place in Strasbourg in 1518, was caused by a plant growing on moist rye. an LSD-style chemical It was caused by overconsumption of foods contaminated with the type of mold producing mold. This type of food to terrible hallucinations and to severe twitches it causes.

However, according to other scientists, who are in the majority, this has nothing to do with any chemical. The most likely cause of this ‘dancing plague’ is the ‘psychological disease’.mass hysteria’. So what is mass hysteria?

Epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria occurs in large groups of people or in institutions. under conditions of concern occurring to infectious dissociative events is called. One of the examples that can be given to this is that it is generally seen in schools. mass fainting events or after someone is sick making everyone feel sick.

Why were people in Strasbourg feeling anxious?

So why did people at that time feel under anxious conditions? because religion. Among the people, the temple of St. of Vitus instead of punishing sinners by dancing There was a social belief about So St. One of Vitus she had a curse And that worried people.

People thought they were sinners and danced to make up for their sins by dancing, but they never stopped. Life in Strasbourg in the early 1500s fulfilled another essential condition for the outbreak of this psychological illness: life difficulty.

Social and religious conflicts, dire new diseases, harvest failures, and rising wheat prices have caused widespread misery. The year 1517 was very difficult for Strasbourg, the next summer orphanages, hospitals and shelters with the helpless and the poor it was overflowing. They said that some inhabitants of the city were angry with the god and st. That Vitus prowled the city streets They were ideal conditions for them to dream.

Fortunately, the dance epidemic of 1518 was the last of its kind and nothing like this will happen again. didn’t happen. What are you thinking? Please do not forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments.