13 Things Bay Staters Do That the Rest of New England Finds Strange
Order a drink at 5 p.m. in Massachusetts, and you’ll pay the regular price. Happy hour deals aren’t allowed.
That one raises eyebrows next door, and it’s not the only one.
Here’s what Bay Staters do that the rest of New England finds strange.
1. Sacred Cod
If you sit in the public gallery of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, you can look up at the Sacred Cod.
It hangs overhead as a symbol of how much fishing mattered to the early economy.
A Boston merchant gave the codfish to the House in 1784.
It has seniority.
On April 26, 1933, members of the Harvard Lampoon took it from the chamber.
2. Unenrolled Voters
Unenrolled is what Massachusetts calls a voter with no party, and in February 2025 about 65% of the state’s registered voters held that label.
That’s roughly 3.25 million people, more than the state’s Democrats and Republicans combined.
If you aren’t enrolled in a party, you can still choose a party ballot in a primary.
3. State Donut
At a Massachusetts bakery counter, you can order a Boston cream donut and be ordering the official state donut, a title it received in 2003.
The chocolate chip cookie became the state cookie in 1997.
If you’d rather have dessert, Boston cream pie got there first, named the state dessert in 1996.
4. No Happy Hour
At a Massachusetts bar, you pay the regular price for a drink at 5 p.m.
That’s because the state’s happy hour rules, 204 CMR 4.03, prohibit selling a drink for less than the price regularly charged during the same calendar week.
The same rules also stop a bar from giving you a free drink.
What the State’s Happy Hour Rules Still Allow
Under the happy hour rules, a bar can still give you free food or entertainment at any time.
A bar can also include a drink in a meal package.
5. Boston Left
A Boston left, according to a 2013 Boston Globe column on local driving lingo, is a left turn made in front of you before you can clear the intersection.
A Boston bump is a tap from the car behind you when you daydream through a green light.
6. Worcester and Leominster
Locals say Worcester with the vowel from “put,” roughly Wuss-ter, so the spelling and the sound barely match.
In Leominster, a city north of Worcester, locals say Lem-un-ster.
If you say either one the way it’s spelled, locals will often correct you.
7. Haymarket Pushcarts
Boston’s Haymarket is an open-air market run by pushcart owners every Friday and Saturday along Blackstone, Hanover and North streets near Faneuil Hall.
The Boston Globe calls it one of the oldest open-air markets in America.
Vendors set up in rain or snow.
Psst! How much do you know about Massachusetts? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Bay State Pop Quiz
Answer nine questions on Massachusetts quirks, rules and traditions. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
A Massachusetts bar can’t hand one person more than how many drinks at a time?
8. Beanpot Mondays
If you're in Boston on the first two Mondays in February, you can catch the Beanpot, a hockey tournament held at TD Garden.
Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern play in it, the same four schools in every tournament held since it began in 1952.
Harvard won the first one.
You don't need a degree from any of them to pick a side.
The trophy is a bean pot.
9. Sweet Caroline
If you're at Fenway Park in the middle of the eighth inning, you hear the crowd sing along to "Sweet Caroline."
The song first played at Fenway in 1997, and it stayed an occasional pick for a few years.
In 2002, it became a daily fixture.
Visitors from other states often stay in their seats.
10. Scream Tunnel
Wellesley College students line Central Street near the college and cheer at the Boston Marathon's halfway mark, a stretch known as the Scream Tunnel.
In 2026, the dean of students office handed out cowbells to the students.
The night before the race, students make signs, often reading "Kiss me" with a playful line added.
If you're running, you may jog over for a smooch of support.
It's loud.
11. Duckling Day
Duckling Day takes over Boston every Mother's Day, when more than 1,000 people parade through the parks dressed as characters from Make Way for Ducklings.
If you march, you start at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common and finish in the Public Garden, near the sculpture of the ducklings.
Friends of the Public Garden runs it with the city's parks department.
The tradition is more than 30 years old.
12. Cashless Tolling
You drive Interstate 90 across Massachusetts without stopping to pay because the road went to all-electronic tolling on October 28, 2016.
When tolling started, 16 gantries collected vehicle information as vehicles traveled underneath.
13. July 4 Reading
Boston gathers outside the Old State House each July 4 to hear the Declaration of Independence read from the balcony.
That balcony is where Bostonians first heard the Declaration, in July 1776.
In 2023, Captain Timothy Haraden of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts did the reading.
He said a company member has read it nearly every July 4 since the end of the American Revolution.
In 2026, the city invited you to gather outside the Old State House at 10:15 a.m. for the reading.
9 Reasons Bay Staters Keep Crossing Into New Hampshire and Staying
During the pandemic, New Hampshire gained about 32,000 more Massachusetts residents than it lost.
These are the reasons Bay Staters keep crossing the line.
9 Reasons Bay Staters Keep Crossing Into New Hampshire and Staying
Bay Staters Watched Dunkin's Medium Iced Latte Rise From $3.89 in 2019 to $4.39 in 2022, and Coffee Prices Continue to Increase
Coffee prices were 6.1 percent higher in August 2026 than a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Many Bay Staters have felt the jump at the counter.
