
The Dancing Plague of 1518 - pepys
https://publicdomainreview.org/2018/07/10/the-dancing-plague-of-1518/
======
viraptor
Every time I see this, I wonder if these were just people who, for whatever
reason, wanted to have fun / had enough of their daily life and protested that
way. Considering that people joined in sometimes when they saw the "dancing
plague", it doesn't seem like a weird mental issue.

On one hand side it's interesting that there are multiple records of this
happening, but on the other these seem to come from "official sources". Which
reminds me of an evening when we were dancing with friends at night (with
candles around) to some quiet music in a city centre. Some police guy passed
by after a while to check on a report of "Satanist dancing" (?) happening
nearby. (Multiple tall, residential buildings had a good view on us) Of course
that only led to us moving to a nearby park and making sure the candles form a
pentagram this time - and dancing until early morning.

I can only imagine how would that night be described by random people - and
how it could be misunderstood without context by anyone reading it hundreds of
years later.

Also in 1930s, some people joined dance marathons which were pretty much an
organised dancing plague with prizes:
[http://www.messynessychic.com/2017/08/29/the-depraved-
dance-...](http://www.messynessychic.com/2017/08/29/the-depraved-dance-
marathons-of-the-1930s-you-didnt-know-about/)

~~~
Amezarak
> Considering that people joined in sometimes when they saw the "dancing
> plague", it doesn't seem like a weird mental issue.

On the contrary, the expressions of underlying mental problems, which we call
mental illnesses, are highly contagious. The DSM has a list of non-Western
illnesses it calls "culture bound" syndromes, but we're becoming increasingly
aware of how true it is for mental illnesses in general - even diseases like
schizophrenia manifest differently in non-Western countries.

------
kcanini
Posted dozens of times already:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+...](https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+1518+%28dance%7Cdancing%29)

------
dvh
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_plague_of_1518](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_plague_of_1518)

------
INTPenis
What proof is there that this isn't just an urban legend?

