I have no idea why the laws were called the blue laws but they are history:
You can now buy beer at breakfast time on Sundays, as New York says bye-bye to the blue laws. Gov. George Pataki signed into law Thursday a bill allowing beer sales to start at 8 a.m., superseding the former start time of noon. The midday law was part of the decades-old blue laws to regulate Sunday activities. Calling the old blue laws archaic, the justification for the new law noted that "(It) will make it easier for people traveling and families picnicking to stop at the store in the morning to get their groceries for the day."I have had the experience of waiting in a grocery line-up at 11:43 am only to be told I had to go back and check out the cereal aisle a few more times. Nice to see a Republican leader who appreciates that beer is a proper part of a Sunday picnic.
Comments
Todd R. - July 30, 2006 10:13 am
Nice to see these laws falls by the wayside. It has always been a conundrum to me why a secular government was enforcing laws that were clearly based on a particular religion. You had to wonder, why was it okay to buy alcohol on the Jewish, Muslim and holy day of just about every other religion, but not the Christian sabbath?
The term 'Blue Law' seems to have a few different origins, but likely the first references had to do with the punishment for violating them, which resulted in the letting of blood:
http://www.answers.com/topic/blue-law
"blue laws
Origin: 1781
During the American Revolution, Connecticutters were shocked--yes, shocked!--to learn that a book by a pro-British American traitor had been published in London that portrayed their early days as grim and gloomy. Rather than celebrating Connecticut for establishing the first English-speaking self-government entirely independent of the Mother Country (1617), the 1781 book by the Reverend Samuel Peters condemned the harshness of Puritan laws in the seventeenth-century Commonwealth of Connecticut. He called them "Blue Laws; i.e. bloody Laws; for they were all sanctified with whippings, cutting off the ears, burning the tongue, and death." The laws of early Connecticut included, for example, a five-shilling fine for absence from church on the Lord's Day. For a burglary committed on Sunday, in addition to the usual penalties the burglar had an ear cut off, and a third Sunday burglary meant the death penalty, there being no more ears. Lying or swearing earned time in the stocks. There were fines for playing cards, dice, or shuffleboard in public. Drinkers at inns were limited to half a pint of wine, and no alcohol was served after 9 P.M. "
gr - July 30, 2006 11:00 am
Glad I can shop and keep my ears. Massachusetts has had even more restrictive blue laws until recently, and I wonder if anyone from Mass can fill us in? Funny thing is both NY and Mass are supposedly so liberal, and are in many ways, but old fashioned too.
Al - July 31, 2006 2:09 pm
Wikipedia has a pretty good article on blue laws.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law
Franky Edder-Dionne - January 12, 2007 7:57 pm
Than you could buy beer on Sunday is a blessing. In GA, you can't buy beer on Sunday at all. There are even some Holidays where they won't sell beer.