I hope the church doesn't subject podcasting to a blue law

This past Sunday I needed some kirsch for a dinner I was making and as I headed to the store I remembered the blue laws.

A blue law is a law that curtails activities that can occur on Sunday. The term is also used to describe any law that has its roots in a puritanical desire to legislate morality.

This weekend it meant I couldn't buy Kirsch at a liquor store on Sunday. It is against the law to sell alcohol in my home state of Colorado. Mind you I can go to a bar and get a drink.

In fact about half the US states and several provinces in Canada ban the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Other blue laws include bans on the sale of alcohol on election day, restrictions on how late alcohol can be served or sold (in Colorado you can't buy alcohol after 1:00 am at a bar or a store), restrictions also curtail who can sell certain types of alcohol, (in Colorado you can only buy liquor at a liquor store nowhere else, but you can buy beer at a grocery store as long as it is only 3.2% alcohol)

Not all blue laws relate to the sale of alcohol, many prohibited any business being conducted on Sunday. Today, at least in the US, most are related to alcohol sales.

I was unable to find an authoritative etymology of the term but it first appeared in the late 18th century to refer to various religiously motivated laws enacted by the Puritans.