But not on Good Friday in Germany.
It is one of the odd laws that are so hard to overturn. A dancing ban on certain holidays is still in effect around here.
Even our favorite "what were they thinking paper" bild.de asks the question if this still makes sense today.
If laws had to makes sense when circumstances change, the statute books would look very different.
The ban is administered at the state level, and there are cracks in the uniformity of application. Not long ago, the "quiet time" would start at midnight on Thursday and continue until Saturday night.
Recent protests and challenges mean that the northern State of Bremen is phasing out the ban over the next few years.
As with religion in general, a certain leniency regarding enforcement could be found in many towns and cities, meaning that officials would look the other way if revelers kept the music and excitement down.
Germany's party capital Berlin, also the political party capital, has always been less strict when it came to enforcing the ban -- after all, for decades, the evil commies beyond the wall could invade at any moment, so the folks in the West danced while they could.
Other states, however, have even strengthened enforcement in recent years.
Chances are, in ten years, you won't have to sit through any more blogs or news reports about the dancing ban.
[Update 4/14/2017] Ten years may have been too optimistic. Some politicians have seized on the uproar over ISIS and the refugee crisis to call for strengthening Christian traditions, going as far an ultimately failed attempt in one northern German state to add the Christian god to the state constitution.
Some papers are still running pro and con columns about the ban on parties, dances and general frolicking, for example, Die Welt under the headline "Pro and Con: Is the Good Friday Dance Ban a Kind of Sharia?" (in German).
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