This week we were asked to choose what we want to blog about. I decided to write about the dancing plague. I know it doesn’t sound like a real thing but I assure you that it’s real; even if the name does sound a bit weird.

In 1518 there was a woman who started dancing in Strasbourg. Most people didn’t think much of it; until she didn’t stop. Day after day more people started to join her. The town’s people even built a stage and even hired musicians to see if they would stop when the music stoped.  That idea didn’t work though, and in one month 400 people danced themselves to death

Although no one can say for sure what caused the Dancing Plague; Scientists and Historians have come up with a few different theories. The first theory is called ergotism. Ergotism is the twisting and contorting of the body and can cause you to have hallucinations. The second theory is Mass Psychogenic Illness, also known as Mass Hysteria.  Mass Psychogenic Illness is practically tricking your mind into thinking it’s sick. The last theory is the Wrath of Saint Vitus,  also know as Sydenham Chorea syndrome. This is a rare neurological disorder that causes rapid, random, jerky movement in the face, hands, and feet.

In my personal opinion, I think the dancing was caused by Ergotism and Mass Psychogenic Illness.  I think this because the twisting and contorting of the body could have had looked like dancing and with the hallucination; they could have imaged sleeping and eating, and the mass psychogenic illness would play in this by having their brains by tricking themselves into thinking they were full and not tired.

Those are the reasons I think that ergotism and mass psychogenic illness was the cause of the dancing plague, what do you think caused the dancing plague, comment down below? thank you for reading

picture credit:http://thinkingsidewayspodcast.com/tag/dancing-plague/