The dancing plague of 1518 - An epidemic that brought uncontrollable excitement among people for the dance, ​leading to their death

There have always been very strange and weird happenings on the earth, but you are totally shocked to hear about the incident we will be talking about today, because this occurrence may have been counted at the top of the list of surprising and unexpected events. Let us ask you a question as to why people dance, your answer will probably be that for their own fun and entertainment. But if hundreds of people die or faint while dancing, then what will it be called? Yes, this is a bit strange to hear, but about 500 years ago, there was an incident in which many people had lost their lives while dancing. And this incident was so surprising that even today people keep giving different theories about why it really happened. 

Actually, the incident we are talking about today is known as the Dancing plague of 1518, which took place in 1518 at Strasbourg, Alsace in the Holy Roman Empire. This plague started in the July month of 1518, when a woman named Troffea suddenly started dancing in the street one day and danced continuously for five or six days. And then after a few days from here, 34 more people joined her and then gradually the whole village was included in the dance, due to which the number of dancing people had now crossed 400 in total. However, when the relatives of the people came to know about this incident, they could not understand what was really happening. Because once the dance started, nobody stopped, and then soon people started dying due to dancing too much. And if reports are to be believed, the main reason for this was heart attacks, strokes, and exhaustion and due to this plague, every day the death toll had crossed 15.

Although acquaintances and relatives did whatever they could to save the people, they took the help of many doctors to eliminate this plague, but according to the doctors and intellectuals of that time, there was not a supernatural event. They believed that the cause of this plague was the overheated blood and then the treatment was taken out by the doctors that when people would get tired while dancing, then this plague would end on its own. The other explanations for the dancing plague were also included demonic possession. After hearing these things from the doctors, the people there vacated a place in the market and built a huge stage of wood and also musicians were hired to encourage the people, but later this decision backfired. Because people were dying more now than ever before and this incident took a more macabre form.

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Although no one knows exactly when this incident came to an end, but some people say that this plague continued to haunt people for almost three months, in which hundreds of people lost their lives and some faced unconsciousness, the state of being unconscious. However, this incident should not become a mystery in the future, that's why many experts researched it and kept giving their different opinions. Some people believed that this plague had spread in an area where people were struggling with hunger, diseases, and poverty and they did such work in superstition and because of some initial people, this superstition gradually spread throughout the village.

Modern theories suggest that the main reason for this may also be food poisoning and that the dancing plague was spread due to eating poisonous food in the village. Although many more people have given their different opinions, but still no one knows exactly what was the reason behind this. Because medical science was not so advance at that time and in today's time, our experts can tell something only by collecting some earlier data. But whatever the reason may be, this incident definitely got itself included in the list of the world's most bizarre events.