No tags yet.
Mysteries have always occupied a customized space in our minds. People always love to hear them but are not sure whether they can/cannot confront them. The ambiances that we live in has all sorts of mysteries embedded in it and we need to get deeper into them to know them. But that is too much to be expected from a common man who is indulged in his own complexities to be solved rather than rendering his usefulness in unwanted mysteries.
Still some way or the other we like hearing the unknown or something we never expect to hear in our day to day routine which for the time being surges the Adrenalin in our body and definitely gives us Goosebumps.
The world itself is a set of mysteries which is occupied by subset of unknown facts which often govern the entire universe.
Let us get our-self deep down into some of these interesting mysteries of history which have been long forgotten or which may be unheard by many!!!! Let these subsets be unveiled slowly every week or so just to tingle your senses and also know these interesting things in and around the world.
Let us start up with what is called as
“ The Dancing Plague”
This is something rarely heard of… But Yes!!.... It is true….
Legends say that somewhere in the year 1021 A.D, A group of people gathered around a church in German town of Kolbigh and danced so wildly that the priest was unable to perform the mass, due to the uproar around. The priest ordered them to stop but the people ignored him and continued what they were doing. In a fit of rage the priest cursed them to continue dancing for a year round and this continued until people fell in deep sleep and a few never woke up again.
Even if it is a legendary stuff, the insane and hysterical dance wasn’t a myth as it was evidenced in later years in many other places…
The historical accounts trace back from 1200 A.D. to 1600 A.D
As evidenced in history, people died in huge numbers either due to exhaustion, breaking of ribs or cardiac arrest due to continuous dancing. Incidence which were reported included fatal dancing in German town of Erfurt in 1247, where people danced over a bridge on Moselle River until it collapsed and people drowned; Western Germany and Northeastern France in the year 1374 where people danced for weeks together screaming by enchanting the visions of Priests and monks and in a semi conscious state. City of Trier also experienced a hysterical hopping and leaping of the people for a time span of about 6 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Many of them died after breaking their ribs and loins…. Ouch!!!!
Then next comes the city of Strasbourg where the epidemic was at its peak which claimed about 400 lives and an average of 15 lives per day….
These outbreaks seem to be more of less mythical but there are evidences to prove that they are more of a fact than myth. One more interesting fact is that, these epidemic outrages completely vanished by the onset of 17th century.
The question is ,
What caused these hallucinations?
Were the people ingested with some kinds of drugs by Secret Scientific Societies?
Did the surrounding and environment have something to do with the outbreak??
Why do the epidemics stop all of a sudden?
Scholars say the following reasons may be the probable causes;
Viral infection by a moss called ergot that bloomed on ripening rye and people eating it were bound to experience hallucinations. For heavens sake Come On!!!!!!!!!!!!! Viral infections cannot have such a prolonged effect.....Also the areas that experienced such effects also had different climatic conditions and types of crops. So in short… Theory discarded
A cultural contagion due to a psychological distress caused because of belief in some curse that existed since medieval times.
There is a long list of speculations that try and answer the above questions but still the mystery remains unsolved till date...................................................
That was something which is not a usual occurrence in today's world… What was it then?