Those Puritans were a fun lot. Because many things that would be considered fun, especially by young people, were commonly believed at the time to be the work of Satan, things like dancing in public were forbidden, as was public displays of affection, premarital and extramarital sex, and excessive Christmas celebrations or the playing of fortune-telling games. Betting/gambling was also strictly prohibited, along with working on the Sabbath day.
By the 1660s, in part because of their overzealous enforcement of religious laws, the Puritan Church was already facing a membership crisis and passed the Halfway Covenant to encourage people to join the church without becoming full members. Sort of a "test drive". It didn't work.
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