14. Many jurisdictions made it illegal to dye ducks on Sunday
One of the commonly recounted strange laws in the United States discussed on websites, magazine articles, and books are those which prohibited the dyeing of ducks on Sundays. Often tied to the Easter holiday, most of these descriptions of the laws banning the practice are examples of circular research and reporting. The idea that cities and states had to enact laws to keep ducks and ducklings from being dyed in unnatural colors is mostly false. Jurisdictions did enact laws proscribing the dyeing of ducks at certain times and under certain conditions, but they had nothing to do with fowl. They were another of the Blue Laws, ironically.
The ducks referred to by the laws were duck cloth, a heavy cotton fabric, and duck canvas. Both were popular materials for clothes, especially work clothes, in the days before denim replaced them in popularity. As part of the Blue Laws which were enabled in part to provide a cessation of labor, usually on Sunday, laws were passed outlawing the dyeing of duck cloth, which was commonly called ducks, part of the process of turning bolts of cloth into clothing. There was no need to pass laws prohibiting the dyeing of aquatic birds, though the practice of dyeing fowl later spread to chicks and ducklings as Easter gifts in the late 20th century.
