shinybirdwonderland

[shinybirdwonderland]

One lesser-known but captivating story from history is the tale of the "Dancing Plague" of 1518. In the city of Strasbourg, in modern-day France, a bizarre phenomenon occurred when a woman named Frau Troffea suddenly began dancing in the street without stopping. Over the next few days, dozens of people joined her, dancing uncontrollably for hours, sometimes collapsing from exhaustion or even dying from strokes and heart attacks.

Authorities were baffled, and instead of restraining the dancers, they encouraged more dancing, thinking it would help the dancers "dance out" the illness. They even hired musicians to accompany them. However, the dancing only spread further, infecting hundreds before it finally faded away after weeks of chaos. Historians still debate what caused the Dancing Plague—some speculate mass hysteria or a reaction to ergot, a toxic mold on bread. It remains one of history’s strangest unsolved mysteries.