'Blue Laws,' in virtue whereof, among other enlightened provisions, any citizen who could be proved to have kissed his wife on Sunday, was punishable, I believe, with the stocks.

"That was the time of the Blue Laws, but perhaps it was too rigorous for King John.

It was religious prejudice back in the 1100s that first damned crossbows to relative exile for centuries to come, and it's because of archaic, religious blue laws that Sunday hunting is still prohibited in a handful of states including Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts.

The restrictions trace back to a time when retail sales of all sorts were not allowed on Sundays for religious reasons under so-called blue laws. Until recent years, for example, Sunday sales of alcohol were banned in Pennsylvania.

"It benefits from neighboring Bergen County, New Jersey's Blue Laws that prohibit Sunday retail sales, incentivizing weekend shoppers to cross the state border and consequently widening the trade area.

The Puritan Blue Laws are not needed to remember the Sabbath.

They demanded "blue laws" to curb retail activity on Sunday.

Religion News Service reported that supporters of the legislation say Virginia's prohibition on carrying a "gun, pistol, bowie knife, dagger," or other dangerous weapons into churches during service is an archaic remnant of the state's "blue laws" enacted in the 1800s to prohibit recreational activities on Sundays.

In 1781, a history of Connecticut referred to the "blue laws"of the Puritans, which could have prompted the link between blue and sexual behaviour.

The recipient of the Thomas Wolfe Prize for 2017 was Kevin Young, author of ten books of poetry, including Blue Laws: Selected & Uncollected Poems 1995-2015 (2016) and Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels (2011).