Chances are, you didn’t even know the holiday existed, despite it being an official Michigan public act.
Many of the laws passed over the years by the Michigan Legislature have been forgotten, and others are not particularly enforced.

For example, if someone is thinking of buying a new car, he or she shouldn’t go to a dealership on Sunday, as vehicle sales are illegal on that day. In fact, buying, selling, negotiating or exchanging a vehicle on a Sunday is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or imprisonment, according to the 1953 act.

Some of Michigan’s more outdated laws likely are rooted in a mindset from the past, such as the laws separating the behaviors and manners of men and women.

Back in 1931, adultery was declared a felony, but only if the person who was cheated on makes a complaint in less than a year. However, unmarried men and women who “lewdly and lasciviously associate” with one another or cohabit together are still liable under the law, although only a misdemeanor. And if two divorcees live together, they also are liable to being punished under the adultery statute.

Legislators in 1931 also declared anyone who uses indecent, vulgar or insulting language in earshot of women and children is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Additionally, anyone who “(insultingly) reproaches God” is guilty of a misdemeanor, so take care to not take “the holy name of God” in vain. But the law also states that a person who does blaspheme God’s name can only be punished within five days of doing so.

In other areas of Michigan laws, missing a train could be punishable by a 1981 law. If a person is assigned by the military to travel somewhere and somehow misses the departure of a train, airplane or other vehicle, he or she could be punished by a court martial.

But if that person does choose to take the train to his or her destination, drunkenness is prohibited under a 1913 statute.