June 24, 1374

History sometimes waltzes in when you least expect it.

So what is worthy of note about June 24, 1374?  I'm glad you asked.  On this day, a long ass time ago, in Aechen, Germany the first major outbreak of St. John's Dance was recorded.  If visions of a bunch grubby Germans doing the Macarena during the Dark Ages popped into your head, you are not far from the mark.  St. John's Dance is also known as the Dancing Plague and was an epidemic of feverish, uncontrollable dancing.  It was thought to be a curse by St. John the Baptiste himself.  How cool is that?  Anyone can curse someone to an untimely death but this seemingly groove master St. John cursed people to dance until they collapsed from exhaustion.  Contemporary sources often picture women partaking in St. John's Dance, because you know, if there is something a bit odd and bearing the suspicion of devilry, it's best to show women doing it.  However, further investigations show that it men were the primary dancers.  So think 14th century Men at Work or the Village People.  Actually, I'm not positive if Men at Work danced or not, I'm assuming so due to that famous song of theirs where they request that everyone look at their pants.  The Dancing Plague was popular for around 200 years and seemed to die down by about mid 16th century.  It is thought to be one of the first forms of mass hysteria or even maybe a social movement of some sort and not actually a disease.

Anyway, I had never heard of this before.  It's pretty cool.