The weird laws in Massachusetts fall into three groups: colonial and Puritan-era statutes that nobody enforces but nobody has repealed, oddly specific rules that still carry fines, and a few genuinely strange laws that can land you in serious trouble if you ignore them. The one most likely to affect an ordinary person is the state’s wiretapping statute, which makes secretly recording a conversation a felony. The rest range from quaint to absurd.
Recording a Conversation Without Everyone’s Consent Is a Felony
Start here, because this is the weird law most likely to catch you. Massachusetts has one of the strictest wiretapping laws in the country. Under Chapter 272, Section 99, secretly recording any conversation, in person or by phone, without the consent of every person involved is a felony. Penalties run up to five years in state prison, up to two and a half years in jail, a fine of up to $10,000, or some combination.1General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 272 Section 99
Most states let you record a conversation as long as one party, meaning you, consents. Massachusetts does not. Hit record on your phone during an argument with your landlord without telling them and you have committed a felony. Employees documenting workplace harassment, tenants gathering evidence, drivers recording a traffic stop: all have been tripped up by this. The exceptions are narrow. If you are unsure, assume the recording is illegal unless everyone present has agreed.
Nunchucks, Throwing Stars, and Other Banned Weapons
Chapter 269, Section 10 bans the predictable items like unlicensed firearms, but it also prohibits carrying a list that reads like a martial arts catalog: nunchucks, throwing stars, blowguns, weighted chains, spiked leather armbands, and a hand wrap called a cestus, alongside switchblades and blackjacks.2Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269 Section 10
The penalties are not trivial. A first offense for someone with no prior felony convictions can bring a fine up to $50 or up to two and a half years in jail. Someone with a prior felony faces a mandatory minimum of two and a half to five years in state prison, and repeat offenders face escalating mandatory minimums up to ten or fifteen years.3General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269 Section 10 If you moved to the state with a set of teenage nunchucks in a box, leave them out of the car.
Sunday and Holiday Blue Laws
Chapter 136 still carries a version of the colonial Sunday closure. Most retail now opens on Sundays without a special permit, but opening a shop or doing business on Sunday outside the law’s listed exemptions brings a fine of $20 to $100 for a first offense and $50 to $200 for each repeat. Each individual sale or act of labor counts as its own offense.4General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 136 Section 5
Alcohol has its own schedule. Most liquor-licensed businesses cannot sell alcohol between 1:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. on Sundays. Tavern-license holders cannot sell on Sundays at all. Wholesale distributors generally cannot sell or deliver on Sundays either, though wineries, breweries, and distilleries with certain retail permits can sell bottles directly to consumers.5General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 138 Section 33
The holiday rules get stranger. Retail stores are flatly prohibited from opening on Thanksgiving and Christmas unless they secure both statewide approval from the Department of Labor Standards and a local police permit. Columbus Day carries a partial restriction before noon and Veterans Day before 1:00 p.m. On New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day, stores can open but cannot require anyone to work.6Office of the Attorney General. Working on Sundays and Holidays (Blue Laws) Massachusetts is one of three states, with Maine and Rhode Island, that still enforces mandatory Thanksgiving and Christmas closures for retail.
Blasphemy, the National Anthem, and Yelling at Umpires
Massachusetts still has a working blasphemy statute. Chapter 272, Section 36 makes it illegal to mock or ridicule God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, or the scriptures. The penalty is up to one year in jail or a fine of up to $300, and a court can require the offender to post a bond for good behavior.7General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 272 Section 36 No modern prosecutor would touch it. The statute conflicts with decades of First Amendment case law, but repealing dead code takes legislative effort nobody has prioritized.
In the same vein, Chapter 264, Section 9 makes it punishable by a fine of up to $100 to play “The Star-Spangled Banner” as dance music, as an exit march, or as part of a medley. The anthem must be performed as a complete, standalone piece.8General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 264 Section 9 A DJ spinning an anthem remix in a Boston nightclub is technically breaking state law.
More enforceable, at least on paper, is Chapter 272, Section 36A. Anyone sixteen or older who directs obscene language or slander at a player or official during a sporting event can be fined up to $50.9General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 272 Section 36A Given a typical night at Fenway, the statute feels aspirational, but it is real.
Fortune Telling Requires a License
To tell fortunes for money in Massachusetts, you need a license from the local licensing authority, and you must have lived in that city or town for at least twelve consecutive months before applying. The license fee ranges from $2 to $50, depending on what the municipality sets. Telling fortunes for money without a license carries a fine of up to $100.10General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 140 Section 185I
The residency rule is the odd part. A psychic who moves to Salem, famous for its occult tourism, cannot legally set up shop until a full year has passed.
Pigeons and Bread
Chapter 266, Section 132 makes it illegal to intentionally kill pigeons in someone else’s trap or to scare them away from nets or beds set up for catching them. The penalty is up to a month in jail or a fine of up to $20, plus civil liability for damages to the trap owner.11General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 266 Section 132 The law dates to 1848, when pigeons were caught for food and target shooting. The trapping economy is long gone; the statute survives.
Bakeries get their own close reading. Chapter 94, Section 4 prohibits spoiled, contaminated, or unwholesome ingredients in any bakery product, and bars any ingredient “likely to deceive the consumer” or that reduces nutritive value unless the label discloses the real ingredients. Unwrapped bread sold by the loaf must carry a label showing both the manufacturer’s name and the net weight.12Justia Law. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 94 Section 4 The rules were aimed at bakers who padded loaves with cheap fillers or shaved weight, and the labeling requirement still applies.
Town-Level Oddities
Individual towns add their own rules on top of state law. Marlborough banned Silly String in 1988 after a Labor Day parade left a cleanup disaster behind. Selling or using Silly String within city limits carries a $200 fine. Coastal towns historically restricted public bathing without proper attire, though those nineteenth-century modesty rules have largely fallen out of enforcement.
Most of these local ordinances trace back to a single incident that annoyed enough people to produce a bylaw. The incident fades; the bylaw stays.
Two “Weird Massachusetts Laws” That Are Not Actually Laws
Two of the most-shared items on listicles are fake, and worth flagging so you do not repeat them.
The claim that it is illegal to transport a gorilla in the back seat of a car is a myth. The state’s own government has said so directly: “many articles may be found online that repeat the Massachusetts ‘gorilla in the back seat’ law, yet none cites the chapter and section of the law, because there is none.”13Mass.gov. No Gorillas Allowed in the Back Seats of Cars
The supposed ban on tomatoes in clam chowder is also fake. The story has a real kernel in Maine, where in 1939 state representative Cleveland Sleeper introduced a bill to criminalize adding tomatoes to chowder. It generated national press, sometimes called “The Great Clam Chowder War,” but it never became law in Maine, and it had nothing to do with Massachusetts.14Snopes. Illegal To Add Tomatoes to Clam Chowder in Massachusetts?