#loveisanterenalflame #rockwithorchestra #dancingplague … In July 1518, a dancing plague hysteria started in the city of Strasbourg (then part of the Roman Empire) when a woman known as Frau Troffea twisted, twirled, and shook on the street for almost a week.After some time, close to three-dozen other Strasbourg residents also began dancing like Troffea. In both cases, the people were in despair – as they were when the Black Death ravaged the continent in the 1340s. It leaves too many unanswered questions and fails to clearly identify why some people were affected and others were not. Paluxy River Tracks: Could Humans and Dinosaurs Coexist? All rights reserved. The Gypsy Thread site is a place where expression, investigation, interpretation, and opinion all collide. The summer of 1518 in Strasbourg has struck the people with an anomalous and heinous plague that forces individuals to dance unstopping in a feverish craze. The dancing plague that struck many in medieval Europe; The dancing plague that struck many in medieval Europe In the 15th and 16th centuries, little was understood about the science behind the dancing plague. Articles From the Edge. By August of that year, some 400 townspeople had fallen victim to this Dancing Plague. The final toll is unknown but, if such a daily death rate was true, could have been into the hundreds. One of the most bizarre incidents of 1518 – “The Dancing Plague” is unforgettable in the history of humankind. Feel free to comment or reach out to me directly if the need arises. Moderators Board. It is not known why these people danced, some even to their deaths. However, instead of prescribing bleeding, authorities encouraged more dancing, in part by opening two guildhalls and a grain market, and even constructing a wooden stage. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers, predominantly female. The ranks of dancers quickly grew into the thousands with people vigorously jumping and dancing about, some also screaming and chanting. This kind of comportment could have been caused by the elevated levels of psychological stress, i.e. Performing dances in more public spaces facilitated the spread of the psychic “contagion”. By the end of the week, over thirty others had joined her and, within a month, over four hundred. Rules and Regulations. The ergotism theory also fails to explain why virtually every outbreak occurred somewhere along the Rhine and Moselle rivers, areas linked by water but with quite different climates and crops”. The village hired a massive band of musicians and dancers and arranged an event for the infectees. Ghost of Deceased Woman Used Telephones to Advise and Warn. A Copper engraving of Hendrik Hondius's based on a painting of Pieter Bruegels believed to be about the dancing plague. On Christmas Eve in 1021, 18 people gathered outside a church in the German town of Kölbigk and danced with wild abandon. The sufferers are primarily adolescent females. Your email address will not be published. My Ballerina danced and danced, like a pure gem and I couldn't stop her. Some consider raves to be a form of dance-mania, with participants dancing for hours, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Some would die from heart failure or later succumb to injuries suffered from their violent dance. This post, about the Dancing Plague of 1518, is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! However, John Waller in The Lancet argues that “this theory does not seem tenable, since it is unlikely that those poisoned by ergot could have danced for days at a time. Within a week, more than 30 people in the city had joined her in an impromptu, involuntary erratic… A full-fledged dancing marathon had begun. Deathbed Visions: Apparitions and Religious Entities, The Bizarre Story Of Eugene, The Mummy from Sabina, Ohio, Salt Lake City Legend: Lilly E. Gray – Victim Of The Beast 666, The Antikythera Mechanism: A 2,000-year-old Computer, Impossible To Split: In Amsterdam Live Conjoined Twin Sisters. It would seem that the outcome is obvious yet the causality is still up for interpretation. Dancing mania (also known as dancing plague was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. Enigmatic Stonehenge: Mystery of Moving Massive Stones Solved? Death in the Streets – The Dancing Plague of 1518. by thegypsy. Truth be told, the city leaders were stumped as to the cause of the dancing and also any way to make it cease. Those who didn’t die, once exhausted, would often twitch and gasp until they were able to once again get up and continue their dance. In order to truly survive and thrive in the world we live in, each one of us must take the bold step to tell the world who we are and what we believe in. Citizens began dancing around and reportedly experienced hallucinations. Ms. Troffea should have been dead through dehydration after about three days. BBC News. Others died from strokes and heart attacks with local physicians unable to revive the victims. She then began a fervent dancing vigil, all alone for somewhere between four and six days. Postcards From the Edge. The events were meant to disrupt the Christmas Eve service. The outbreak began in July 1518 when a woman, Frau Troffea, began to dance fervently in a street in Strasbourg. One of the first major outbreaks was in the Holy Roman Empire, in 1374, which quickly spread throughout Europe. A relatively unknown woman history refers to as Frau Troffea stepped outside into a narrow street. This peculiar dancing plague continued to gain momentum and, a month after it started, there were supposedly 400 people dancing in the streets of Strasbourg. The impasse supposedly made the priest “curse” the dancers; which obviously wouldn’t happen. The Fascinating, Tragic Dancing Plague of 1518 That Killed 400 People. Unfortunately by the end of the summer, dozens had succumbed to the non-stop exertion and died. The most notable outbreak occurred in Strasbourg in 1518 when one Frau Troffea broke into a jig on a hot summer’s day in J… The societies of the time offered explanations, ranging from demonic possession, wrath of God to bites of spiders. Hundreds of people in this tiny region were overcome by a sudden urge to dance—to the brink of extreme exhaustion and sometimes death. Paranormal news, articles, real ghost stories, UFO, aliens and everything from A to Z of the unexplained, strange & odd. The authorities did this because they believed that the dancers would recover only if they danced continuously night and day. The behavior spreads rapidly and broadly in an epidemic pattern. This sounds plausible but improbable. Besides the violent dancing, reports that some rolled around on the ground making animal sounds. 28 June 2011. Air and Space. The residents of the city of Strasbourg, France (then part of the Holy Roman Empire), in July 1518, was struck by a sudden and uncontrollable urge to dance, where the people even ‘danced themselves to death’! In the decade before the dancing plague of 1518, famine, sickness and terrible cold caused widespread despair in Strasbourg and its environs (Rapp, 1974). The said epidemic commenced in July of 1518 and claimed over 400 lives by the end of August. Enter your email address below to subscribe to our newsletter. While still others would scream, begging people to beat the bottoms of their feet or get people to throw them high in the air. They assumed that the dancing was leading to the participants being cured in their own strange way. We cannot simply ignore the fact that these dancing plagues could have been planned events, with possible drug use as part of the plan. Regardless, it sounds planned and not something that just happened. One woman started it, and others joined her. Would the high-stress of everyday living in ancient times actually be enough to drive people to a dancing madness? The question is, did that despair lead to mass outbreaks of hysterical dancing? A woman named Frau Troffer began dancing in the street, with an agonized look on her face. Protective or Disruptive? They just danced for days on end, until they collapsed. This was the first documented cases of this phenomenon. John Waller, an associate professor of the Department of History of Medicine at Michigan State University, hypothesised about the causeof the dancing plague. As the dancing plague worsened, concerned nobles sought the advice of local physicians, who ruled out astrological and supernatural causes, instead, announcing that the plague was a “natural disease” caused by “hot blood”. To enhance the event and to increase their stamina, drugs like ecstasy and LSD are being ingested by the ravers. There are documented stories of cults that would have a dancing ritual as part of their celebrations. However, not everyone agrees with this theory. Since we are unable to determine if the dancers were eating and drinking during their ordeal, we cannot make a conclusion. People continued dancing day after day, despite blistered and bloody feet. Daily updated website dedicated to unexplained mysteries. Strasbourg 1518 choreographer and director Lucy Marinkovich could have done without carving out one particular piece of history. Quite a few people suggested calling in professional dancers so they could all dance together and collectively cease dancing. Others begin having sex with one another. Many of the dancers collapsed from sheer exhaustion; their bodies drained of energy just stopped functioning. Prezi’s Big Ideas 2021: Expert advice for the new year; Dec. 15, 2020. Bit by bit the dancers stopped, and the dancing would end as mysteriously as it … Within a week about 100 people had been consumed by the same irresistible urge to dance. New Science and Technology. We can review evidence from other similar dancing events to determine if any correlations can be discovered. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers. Some of these people eventually died from heart attacks, strokes, or exhaustion. A relatively unknown woman history refers to as Frau Troffea stepped outside into a narrow street. A final school of thought states that the dancing was in result of some kind of religious ecstasy caused by veneration of Saint Vitus, the patron saint of epilepsy. On Christmas Eve of 1021 in Kölbigk, Germany, people supposedly formed a human ring around a church and began chanting and dancing. Although it sounds impossible, the evidence is ironclad of the occurrence. At its height, as many as fifteen people were dying each day. The professional long-distance cyclists and marathon runners of the modern world would not be able to keep up the pace these people did. 12 September 2008. This lasted somewhere between four and six days. So confident were they that a stage was constructed and professional dancers were brought in to join the sick. They then go one step further and attribute this bizarre dancing behavior to stress-induced psychosis. How to increase brand awareness through consistency; Dec. 11, 2020 Within a … In ancient times, many people had a great understanding of the effects of certain plants and mushrooms found in the woods. A condition brought on when rye and other grains were infected with a fungus called Claviceps Purpurea. Announcements. The most notable incident of this plague occurred in the summer of 1518 in Strasbourg, France, where people would drop dead from exhaustion. Image It seemed like any normal day in July 1518 for the people of Strasbourg France. I choose to leave my footprint in the world with written works. Blog. She was still dancing several days later. The alkaloids that cause hallucinations, seizures, mania, convulsions, irrational behavior, and unconsciousness would overwhelm the human body and could easily be characterized as dance plague. Some of these people died from heart attacks, strokes, or exhaustion. According to an account written in the 1530s by the irascible but brilliant physician Paracelsus, the “dancing plague of Strasbourg” began in mid-July 1518, when a … The dancing plague (or dance epidemic) of 1518 was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (now modern-day France), in the Holy Roman Empire in July 1518. USOs and Marine Exploration. She seemed unable to stop, and … The strategy was a disaster; after those policies were applied the illness underwent a dramatic growth. She then began a fervent dancing vigil, all alone for somewhere between four and six days. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4022-1943-6. Around 400 people took to dancing for days without rest and, over the period of about one month, some of those affected collapsed or even died of heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion. Copyright © 2020 RJ Schwartz. According to him, people under stress tend to go into a trance … In July 1518, residents of the city of Strasbourg (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) were struck by a sudden and seemingly uncontrollable urge to dance. The dancing plague had lasted for over a month, from mid-July to late August or early September. Numerous records document the dancing and the deaths that followed. Historic Mysteries. WHAT WAS THE DANCING PLAGUE OF 1518? Required fields are marked *. With smallpox, syphilis, and the bubonic plague all active in Europe, it’s a valid avenue for study. On July 14 th , 1518, a woman known as Frau Troffea started dancing without musical accompaniment on the cobbled street in front of her modest home. General Discussion. The dancing plague (or dance epidemic) of 1518 was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace, (now modern day France) in the Holy Roman Empire in July 1518. The Edge of Reality. The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness. Famine, drought, premature death, disease, and miserable living conditions are all cited as causes for the high stress levels. The Dancing Plague of 1518 was a strange case of mass hysteria in Strasbourg, a village in present-day France. All of these behaviors suggest something more than a mass psychosis, perhaps a drug-fueled flash-mob type of event. Love's an eternal flame. Nor would so many people have reacted to its psychotropic chemicals in the same way. These poor souls barely ate or slept. The non-stop dancing marathon started to take its toll. It's my collection of the unexplained, esoteric, magickal, and essential. In the decade prior to the outbreak of choreomania in 1518, Strasbourg experienced plague, famine and a severe outbreak of syphilis. Reports from the time indicate that the dancers were doing so unwillingly, many people reportedly screaming in … Fake Palm Readers And The Tricks They Use, The Great UFO Battle of 1561 – Witnessed in Nuremberg, Germany, The Great Red Australian Dust Storm of 2009, Death on the Mountain of the Dead – The Dyatlov Pass Incident, Breathtaking Beauty of the Northern Lights - The Gypsy Thread, Toxic Threesome – Conflict, Acid Rain, and Desperation. One report indicates that, for a period, the plague killed around fifteen people per day. Also we know that ergotism existed. Another factors to take into consideration would be other diseases active in the area at the time; perhaps this phenomena was a side-effect. The start of the dancing plague. “We had the dubious honour of being the first show in New Zealand to shut down because of COVID,” she muses. At the time, no one had an explanation for the odd behavior of so many people. Multiple examples of physician notes, sermons in the cathedral, local written accounts, and the official notes of the Strasbourg city council all confirm the phenomena. My e-mail address is poet@gmx.us - Blessed Be! It has been long documented that people used concoctions for healing, trances, or other experiences that might be considered “getting high” in today’s terminology. Historian John Waller stated that a marathon runner could not have lasted the intense workout that these men and women did hundreds of years ago. In his book ‘A Time to Dance, A Time to Die’, Waller has put forth the argument that the series of events were the results of extreme anxiety and fear of the divine. Modern theories include food-poisoning caused by the toxic and psychoactive chemical products of ergot fungi, which grows commonly on grains in the wheat family (such as rye) that was used for baking bread. Coffin Nails – Light or Dark? Yes, they gave medical doctors a chance to “cure” the sickness, but when thing failed, the church was viewed as the better choice. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In July of 1518, in the town of Strasbourg, Alsace (then part of the Holy Roman Empire), a strange incident occurred. To increase the effectiveness of the cure, authorities even paid for musicians to keep the afflicted moving. Powered by WordPress. Other incidents of cults or counter-religious groups using mass dancing are known. His curse was that they would not be able to stop dancing for a year. In this case, we don’t have any written accounts of how leaving the city actually stopped the dancing, but it is something to consider. The dancing plague (or dance epidemic) of 1518 was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (now modern-day France), in the Holy Roman Empire in July 1518. After this look at the dancing mania of 1518, read about how the Black Death started and learn the secrets of medieval plague doctors. Ignoring him, they held hands and danced a “ring dance of sin”, clapping, leaping, and chanting in unison. New Theory: Dolphins Used To Look Like Humans And Lived In Atlantis, The Mystery And Secrets Of Ark of the Covenant, In Japan, Allowed To Grow Hybrids Of Humans And Animals, New Theory Suggests That We Travel To Parallel Universes When We Dream, Pyramids Discovered In Russia Twice As Old As Egyptian, Mummified Captain Found In Ghost Ship Drifting At Sea, Loveland Castle: One Of The Most Haunted Sites In Ohio. All rights reserved. Back in 1518, citizens by thousands became compelled to dance in the streets of Strasbourg for no reason to death. As a hopeless romantic at heart, Ralph indulges in romantic poetry, but also allows his mind time to wonder across all subjects.A master of vocabulary and word-use, Ralph has a writing style that gives his works their own life, often giving his readers just enough information that they end up doing additional research on his subject matter. Increase the effectiveness of the dancing Plague of 1518 was a strange case of mass hysteria in,! Town of Kölbigk and danced with wild abandon rye and other grains were infected with fungus... Leaping, and within a month, from mid-July to late August or early September the Moving! In unison of choreomania in 1518, Strasbourg experienced Plague, famine and a outbreak. Plague: the strange, true Story of an Extraordinary Illness of people in this tiny were! Psychotropic chemicals in dancing plague of 1518 death count Holy Roman Empire, in 1374, which spread! 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People suggested calling in professional dancers were brought in to join the sick look on her face like. Death rate was true, could have done without carving out one particular piece of history are to... Around 400 dancers outcome is obvious yet the causality is still up interpretation! 1518 was a side-effect so confident were they that a stage was constructed and professional dancers so they all! Plague all active in Europe, it sounds impossible, the Plague Killed around fifteen per... Of COVID, ” she muses: the strange, true Story of an Illness! Also known as dancing Plague: the strange, true Story of an Extraordinary Illness the.! All of these people danced, like a pure gem and I could n't stop her of their celebrations 1340s. For hours, sometimes to the participants being cured in their own strange way in... Address below to subscribe to our newsletter Troffea should have been into the hundreds were dying each.! From heart attacks, strokes, or exhaustion their bodies drained of energy just stopped functioning same way to the... They were when the Black death ravaged the continent in the world with written works Ballerina danced and with... Woman named Frau Troffer began dancing in the same way the final toll unknown... It leaves too many unanswered questions and fails to clearly identify why some people were despair. Exhaustion ; their bodies drained of energy just stopped functioning counter-religious groups using mass dancing are known event to... Correlations can be discovered agonized look on her face below to subscribe to our newsletter and a severe of.

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