It is a phenomenon named St. John's Dance, St. Vitus' Dance or tarantism in Europe that was firstly reported when a sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, on a day like today in 1374.
Dancing mania, also known as dancing plague, choreomania, St. John's Dance, tarantism and St. Vitus' Dance, was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries.
It involved groups of people dancing erratically, sometimes thousands at a time. The mania affected men, women, and children who danced until they collapsed from exhaustion and injuries.
One of the first major outbreaks was in Aachen, in the Holy Roman Empire in 1374, in modern-day Germany, and it quickly spread throughout Europe; one particularly notable outbreak occurred in Strasbourg in 1518 in Alsace, also in the Holy Roman Empire, now France.
Affecting thousands of people across several centuries, dancing mania was not an isolated event, and was well documented in contemporary reports. It was nevertheless poorly understood, and remedies were based on guesswork.
Often musicians
accompanied dancers, due to a belief that music would treat the mania,
but this tactic sometimes backfired by encouraging more to join in.
There is no consensus among modern-day scholars as to the cause of
dancing mania.
More information: Smithsonian Magazine
The several theories proposed range from religious cults being behind the processions to people dancing to relieve themselves of stress and put the poverty of the period out of their minds.
It is speculated to have been a mass psychogenic illness, in which physical symptoms with no known physical cause are observed to affect a group of people, as a form of social influence.
Dancing mania is derived from the term choreomania, from the Greek choros (dance) and mania (madness), and is also known as dancing plague. The term was coined by Paracelsus, and the condition was initially considered a curse sent by a saint, usually St. John the Baptist or St. Vitus, and was therefore known as St. Vitus' Dance or St. John's Dance.
Victims of dancing mania often ended their processions at places dedicated to that saint, who was prayed to in an effort to end the dancing; incidents often broke out around the time of the feast of St. Vitus.
St. Vitus' Dance was diagnosed, in the 17th century, as Sydenham chorea.
Dancing mania has also been known as epidemic chorea and epidemic dancing. A disease of the nervous system, chorea is characterized by symptoms resembling those of dancing mania, which has also rather unconvincingly been considered a form of epilepsy.
Other scientists have described dancing mania as a collective mental disorder, collective hysterical disorder and mass madness.
More information: Europeana
The earliest-known outbreak of dancing mania occurred in the 7th century, and it reappeared many times across Europe until about the 17th century, when it stopped abruptly. One of the earliest-known incidents occurred sometime in the 1020s in Bernburg, where 18 peasants began singing and dancing around a church, disturbing a Christmas Eve service.
Further outbreaks occurred during the 13th century, including one in 1237 in which a large group of children travelled from Erfurt to Arnstadt, about 20 km, jumping and dancing all the way, in marked similarity to the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, a legend that originated at around the same time.
Another incident, in 1278, involved about 200 people dancing on a bridge over the River Meuse resulting in its collapse. Many of the survivors were restored to full health at a nearby chapel dedicated to St. Vitus. The first major outbreak of the mania occurred between 1373 and 1374, with incidents reported in England, Germany and the Netherlands.
On 24 June 1374, one of the biggest outbreaks began in Aachen, Germany, before spreading to other places such as Cologne, Flanders, Franconia, Hainaut, Metz, Strasbourg, Tongeren, Utrecht, and countries such as Italy and Luxembourg.
Further episodes occurred in 1375 and 1376, with
incidents in France, Germany and Netherlands, and in 1381 there was an
outbreak in Augsburg. Further incidents occurred in 1418 in Strasbourg,
where people fasted for days and the outbreak was possibly caused by
exhaustion. In another outbreak, in 1428 in Schaffhausen, a monk danced
to death and, in the same year, a group of women in Zurich were
reportedly in a dancing frenzy.
Dancing mania appears to have completely died out by the mid-17th century.
According to John Waller, although numerous incidents were recorded, the best documented cases are the outbreaks of 1374 and 1518, for which there is abundant contemporary evidence.
The outbreaks of dancing mania varied, and several characteristics of it have been recorded. Generally occurring in times of hardship, up to tens of thousands of people would appear to dance for hours, days, weeks, and even months.
Women have often been portrayed in modern literature as the usual participants in dancing mania, although contemporary sources suggest otherwise. Whether the dancing was spontaneous, or an organized event, is also debated. What is certain, however, is that dancers seemed to be in a state of unconsciousness, and unable to control themselves.
In Italy, a similar phenomenon was tarantism, in which the victims were said to have been poisoned by a tarantula or scorpion. Its earliest-known outbreak was in the 13th century, and the only antidote known was to dance to particular music to separate the venom from the blood. It occurred only in the summer months. As with dancing mania, people would suddenly begin to dance, sometimes affected by a perceived bite or sting and were joined by others, who believed the venom from their own old bites was reactivated by the heat or the music. Dancers would perform a tarantella, accompanied by music which would eventually cure the victim, at least temporarily.
Some participated in further activities, such as tying themselves up with vines and whipping each other, pretending to sword fight, drinking large amounts of wine, and jumping into the sea. Some died if there was no music to accompany their dancing. Sufferers typically had symptoms resembling those of dancing mania, such as headaches, trembling, twitching and visions.
More information: History
As with dancing mania, participants apparently did not like the colour black, and women were reported to be most affected. Unlike dancing mania, tarantism was confined to Italy and Southern Europe.
It was common until the 17th century, but ended suddenly, with only very small outbreaks in Italy until as late as 1959.
As the real cause of dancing mania was unknown, many of the treatments for it were simply hopeful guesses, although some did seem effective. The 1374 outbreak occurred only decades after the Black Death, and was treated similarly: dancers were isolated, and some were exorcized. People believed that the dancing was a curse brought about by St. Vitus; they responded by praying and making pilgrimages to places dedicated to St. Vitus.
Prayers were also made to St. John the Baptist, who some believed also caused the dancing. Others claimed to be possessed by demons, or Satan, therefore exorcisms were often performed on dancers.
Numerous hypotheses have been proposed for the causes of dancing mania, and it remains unclear whether it was a real illness or a social phenomenon. One of the most prominent theories is that victims suffered from ergot poisoning, which was known as St. Anthony's fire in the Middle Ages. During floods and damp periods, ergots were able to grow and affect rye and other crops. Ergotism can cause hallucinations and convulsions, but cannot account for the other strange behaviour most commonly identified with dancing mania.
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Other theories suggest that the
symptoms were similar to encephalitis, epilepsy, and typhus, but as with
ergotism, those conditions cannot account for all symptoms.
Numerous sources discuss how dancing mania, and tarantism, may have simply been the result of stress and tension caused by natural disasters around the time, such as plagues and floods.
Another popular theory is that the outbreaks were all staged, and the appearance of strange behaviour was due to its unfamiliarity. Religious cults may have been acting out well-organized dances, in accordance with ancient Greek and Roman rituals. Despite being banned at the time, these rituals could be performed under the guise of uncontrollable dancing mania.
It is certain that many participants of dancing mania were psychologically disturbed, but it is also likely that some took part out of fear, or simply wished to copy everyone else.
Sources agree that dancing mania was one of the earliest-recorded forms of mass hysteria, and describe it as a psychic epidemic, with numerous explanations that might account for the behaviour of the dancers. It has been suggested that the outbreaks may have been due to cultural contagion triggered, in times of particular hardship, by deeply rooted popular beliefs in the region regarding angry spirits capable of inflicting a dancing curse to punish their victims.
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is rendered conspicuous by the presence of great danger.
His inmost feelings are roused
-the thought of self-preservation masters his spirit-
self-denial is put to severe proof,
and wherever darkness and barbarism prevail,
there the affrighted mortal flies to the idols of his superstition,
and all laws, human and divine, are criminally violated.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker
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