The 1518 Strasbourg dancing plague is famous. It had a much larger predecessor 144 years earlier that started after a major Rhine flood and moved up the river. The year?
The Aachen outbreak of summer 1374 followed a major Rhine flood and was the largest documented medieval dance mania. Several hundred people in each affected city danced for days or weeks. Some danced themselves to death. The geographic spread up the Rhine corridor matched the trade-and-pilgrimage routes; the medical interpretations at the time ranged from demonic possession (the Catholic Church's official line) to organised heresy (a popular alternative) to ergot poisoning from contaminated rye (the modern medical revision). The 1349 date was the Black Death year — the Strasbourg dance was almost two centuries later.
Read the full story →In July 1374, after a major Rhine flood, hundreds of people in Aachen began to dance in the streets and could not stop. The plague moved with them up the river.
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