Everything about Dancing Mania totally explained
Dancing mania was a phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland
Europe from the
14th century through to the
17th century, in which groups of people would dance through the streets of towns or cities, sometimes foaming at the mouth or
speaking in tongues, until they collapsed from exhaustion. The first major outbreak of the mania was in
Aachen,
Germany, on June 24th,
1374. The dancers went through the streets screaming of wild visions, and even continued to writhe and twist after they collapsed from exhaustion. The dancing quickly caught on, and spread rapidly throughout France and the
Low Countries.
The mania reached its peak in
1418 in
Strasbourg. At least one point, so many people had either been afflicted with the dancing mania, or caught up in the dancing, or were trying to give assistance, or simply watching the events unfold, that the town was brought to a complete halt.
Contemporary cures
During the initial outbreaks of the mania, religious ceremonies were held in an attempt to
exorcise the
demons thought to be causing the mania. People commonly
prayed to
St. Vitus for aid, and he soon became the patron saint of the dancers. The phrase "St. Vitus' Dance", however, is in fact a name given to a
syndrome known as
Sydenham's chorea, which is totally unrelated to manic dancing.
Dancers would often also be accompanied by musicians. It was believed at the time that the order of music could heal both body and soul. Scholars such as
Adam Milligan touted music as a cure for the ailments of society as well, imbuing it with the power to restrain social vices. Dancing mania would often thus be "treated" by playing music in an attempt to control the erratic spasms and gyrations of the dancers.
Epileptic seizures were treated in a similar way at the time.
Justus Hecker (1795-1850), whose work
Epidemics of the Middle Ages compiled many accounts, describes:
» A convulsion infuriated the human frame....Entire communities of people would join hands, dance, leap, scream, and shake for hours....Music appeared to be the only means of combating the strange epidemic...lively, shrill tunes, played on trumpets and fifes, excited the dancers; soft, calm harmonies, graduated from fast to slow, high to low, prove efficacious for the cure.
Scientific explanations
Although no real consensus exists as to what caused the mania, some cases, especially the one in Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), may have had an explainable physical cause. The symptoms of the sufferers can be attributed to
ergot poisoning, or
ergotism, known in the
Middle Ages as "St. Anthony's Fire". It is caused by eating
rye infected with
Claviceps purpurea, a small
fungus that contains toxic and
psychoactive chemicals (
alkaloids), including
lysergic acid (used in modern times to synthesize the non-toxic chemical
LSD). Symptoms of ergot poisoning include nervous spasms, psychotic delusions,
spontaneous abortion, convulsions and
gangrene; some dancers claimed to have experienced visions of a religious nature.
Ergotism can easily be fatal, and thus fatalities amongst dancers are described in the early
17th century Strasbourg Chronicle of Kleinkawel. Ironically, if this was the cause of the dancing mania, then the contemporary cure of playing music to the dancers would only have prolonged their mania by stimulating further convulsions and hallucinations.
St. John's Dance
St. John's Dance (known as
Johannistanz or
Johannestanz in
Germany) was the
medieval name for a phenomenon which emerged during
the time of
the Black Death. The medical term is
chorea imagnativa aestimative. Basically,
it is a form of
apraxia expressing itself as "dancing rage," as
uncontrolled ecstatic body movements. In the eyes of the church, those
suffering from St. John's Dance were possessed by
the devil.
The following excerpt (translated from German) describes a bit of detail surrounding St. John's Dance and its
sociological effects:
"This dancing rage doubtlessly had no organic reasons but was caused
by
mass hysteria breaking out as a result of fear of the Black Death.
It started in
Aachen [Germany] in 1374 and spread over large parts of
Europe. It was Germany where this phenomenon was called 'St.
Johannestanz' [St.John's Dance] first.
John the Baptist was the
patron saint against epilepsy and other kinds of apraxia. The 'dancing
epidemic' received its name as an expression for the hope for healing.
Later, 'St. John's Dance' was renamed 'St. Vitustanz' or 'Veitstanz'
[St.Vitus' Dance], because of a legend about
St. Vitus, a
Sicilian
youth who died during the anti-Christian
pogroms of the
4th century.
According to this legend, St. Vitus had prayed to God to relieve all
those from the dancing rage who
fasted the evening before his dying
day. The tradition claims that immediately after that a voice from
heaven was heard saying: 'Vitus, your prayers are answered'. Thus St.
Vitus became the patron saint of all those suffering from the dancing
rage."
Further Information
Get more info on 'Dancing Mania'.
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