Going to dances in 1800s

[manualman]

I'm going to hazard a guess that there's some context we don't know about here.

Is it possible that in that day, an unsupervised gathering of young people to dance would only appeal to those interested in what we'd call today "hooking up?" We really take for granted today the amount of freedom of movement that young single people have. In that era, perhaps it was not so much. Did they simply live at home with parents until being married (and perhaps even beyond)?

Before simply mocking the Cure (as Allegra seems to be), perhaps we ought to try to comprehend the context.

[LightBound]

Originally Posted by manualman

I'm going to hazard a guess that there's some context we don't know about here.

Is it possible that in that day, an unsupervised gathering of young people to dance would only appeal to those interested in what we'd call today "hooking up?" We really take for granted today the amount of freedom of movement that young single people have. In that era, perhaps it was not so much. Did they simply live at home with parents until being married (and perhaps even beyond)?

Before simply mocking the Cure (as Allegra seems to be), perhaps we ought to try to comprehend the context.

It's also possible that in the Cure's village, dances were where prostitutes found new customers or perhaps a house of ill-repute held dances. We'd have to know the exact context in which he's writing and his experience with what dances were taking place at that specific time in history, in his location, to really understand what he meant. (That's very important for understanding a lot of what various Saints have said throughout history and also when reading certain passages in the Bible, too.

[benjammin]

I honestly think he was more against what happened after the dance than the dance itself. Honestly even the most innocent of dances can lead to impure thoughts. I do wonder though how John Vianney would feel about catholic and christian groups holding dances, but I think he'd be okay with it as long as it was in the right environment. More than likely the dances in John Vianney's town took place at a tavern and probably had a lot of drinking and prostitution going on.