Five centuries ago, in 1518

Five centuries ago, in 1518, the world’s longest rave took place in Strasbourg – a ‘plague’ of dancing that was fatal for some.

But what caused it?

It started with just a few people dancing outdoors, in the summer heat.

They danced through the night and into the next day.

Seldom stopping to eat or drink, and seemingly oblivious to mounting fatigue and the pain of bruised feet, they were still going days later.

By the time the authorities intervened, hundreds more were dancing in the same frenetic fashion.

The dancing went on and on until – to the horror of the crowds who gathered to watch – some of them collapsed and perished on the spot.

But just what was happening?

The councillors implemented what they felt was the appropriate treatment – more dancing!

They ordered the clearing of an open-air grain market, commandeered guild halls, and erected a stage next to the horse fair.

To these locations they escorted the crazed dancers in the belief that by maintaining their frantic motion, they would shake off the sickness and tire out.

But in their madness, people kept up their dancing, until they fell unconscious and many died.

The council sensed it had made a mistake.

Deciding the dancers were suffering from holy wrath, rather than sizzling brains, they opted for a period of enforced penance, and banned music and dancing in public.

The dancers were taken to a shrine dedicated to St Vitus, located in a musty grotto in the hills above the nearby town of Saverne.

Their bloodied feet were placed into red shoes, and they were led around a wooden figurine of the saint.

In the following weeks, most ceased their wild movements.

The epidemic had come to an end.

For some time, ergotism looked like a good contender, for this crazed dancing epidemic.

This results from consuming food contaminated with a species of mould, that grows on damp rye and produces a chemical related to LSD.

It can induce terrifying hallucinations and violent twitching.

But it is very unlikely that sufferers could have danced for days.

It was even suggested to be a spirit possession, in which people act as if their souls have been taken over by a spirit or deity.

Most people were quick to assume that an enraged St Vitus had caused the affliction.

So all it took was for a few of the devout and emotionally frail to believe St Vitus had them in his sights, for them to enter a trance state, in which they felt impelled to dance for days.

Belief was that St Vitus could punish sinners by making them dance.

It was clear to observers, and witness reports, that the 'infected' did not want to be dancing.

The most credible explanation, is that the people of Strasbourg were the victims of mass psychogenic illness, commonly known as Mass Hysteria.

There had been several other outbreaks of dancing in the preceding centuries, involving hundreds or just a few people, nearly all in towns and cities close to the River Rhine.

Fortunately, the 1518 dance epidemic was the last of its kind in Europe.

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Source~The Guardian.

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