Click here for info on St. John's Dance:
Dancing Mania article on Wikipedia

Most interesting is this bit of info:

>> During the initial outbreaks of the mania, religious ceremonies were held in an attempt to exorcise the demons thought to be causing the mania. People commonly prayed to St. Vitus for aid, and he soon became the patron saint of the dancers. The phrase "St. Vitus' Dance", however, is in fact a name given to a syndrome known as Sydenham's chorea, which is totally unrelated to manic dancing.<<

The craziest stuff told to me were by my Irish grandparents and Great Aunt (Grandma's sister) who used to scare me witless with threats of abduction by Sidhe if I dared walk alone after dark without a male relative. Grandma used to tisk tisk my habit of going to Saturday Evening Mass as a teen and admonish me to wait for my Uncle Brian to come and get me to walk me the six blocks back to her house. I used to think to myself but never say 'Oh yeah Grandma, the Fairy folk are just lying in wait on the corner of Whitney Avenue waiting for the sun to slip beneath the horizon so they can snatch poor little me off the corner."

Now, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was the 1920's or 30's but it was 1977. I suppose she trotted that old gem out because of the stoop shootings* that were giving mothers and grandmothers white hair at the time.. Still, wouldn't that have made me safer on the streets? I dunno.


* Son of Sam