Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of Witchcraft in Colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, most of them women. Despite being generally known as the Salem Witch Trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in several towns in the Province of Massachusetts Bay: Salem Village (now Danvers), Salem Town, Ipswitch and Andover. The most infamous trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in the Salem Town. Prior to the constitutional turmoil of the 1680's, Massachusetts had been dominated by conservative Puritan leaders. The Puritans wanted to rid the Church and town in entirely, of anything disagreeing in their beliefs, and especially what they believe are Witches.
The Dancing Plague of 1518
The Dancing Plague of 1518 was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It involved groups of people dancing erratically, sometimes thousands at a time. The mania affected men, women, and children, who danced until they collapsed from exhaustion. It was never understood why they started or why they passed away.
The Dancing Plague
Comparison
The Dancing Plague was similar to the Salem Witch Trials in the aspect of them both involving many people believing in something ridiculous. Deaths were recorded in both cases but many more in the Salem Witch Trials. The Puritans believed everything was to be in the name of God, as the people who were affected by the dancing plague could not get off their own belief that they could not stop dancing.