BOSTON (AP) – Alcohol sales will be prohibited in Massachusetts today under a little-known provision of state law that bans booze sales on a Monday when a Christmas falls on a Sunday.

The prohibition has remained even though state legislators repealed a Sunday liquor sales ban in 2003.

“It’s just one of those quirks in the law,” said Daniel F. Pokaski, head of the Boston Licensing Board.

State officials say the Monday alcohol ban has been enforced regularly since its inception in 1936. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was 1994; the next will be 2011.

Many liquor store owners and citizens assumed that the repeal of the Sunday liquor sales ban two years ago also discarded the Monday-after-Christmas prohibition, said Natacha Dunker, state outreach coordinator for the state’s Alcoholic Beverages Commission.

Some storeowners are happy for the day off, while others are lamenting the loss of business, Dunker said.