Mass Hysteria
2. Simone Sebastian
3. Chicago Tribune
4. Starting in the a small village of Kashasha in what is now Tanzania, was a group of student who were laughing due to a joke, most likely. However, it was thought to be as one person laughs, then another person does. According to the article it was said, "One person laughs, then another person laughs, then it spreads like an avalanche." It was said to be something that lasted from six monthes to a year and a half. It was said that they were continuously laughing for a year. Also it was said that they were showing signs of pain, fainting, and rashing; they knew it wasn't due to humor. They said it had no specific cause, just a mass hysteria. It is said that it is impossible for a person to laugh for more than a minute. It grew so large, that it spread to surrounding villages and town, and their local school shut down. School children were at the start of this hysteria. It was ended by just dwindling out.
5. Similarities: everyone was scared that it would spread to them. Also they were both among a large group of people
Differences: in Kashasha, it was not from accusation but just laughing. The witch trials were in the 1692 and the laughter epidemic was in 1962.
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