Old Maids Day is June 4

Old Maid Day is a wacky holiday celebrated on June 4th. "Old Maid" brings back memories of the fun children's card game that elicited giggles and squeals when I was growing up. I remembered being mortified when I was stuck with the "Old Maid."

"Old Maid" also refers to an unmarried and childless woman who has passed her child-bearing age. The kinder term would be a "spinster" often depicted as a lonely lady living in seclusion, who is prissy, repressed, cranky, and surrounded by pet cats. Some end up becoming caregivers of their family, relatives and friends.

In these modern days, the term "old maid" and "spinster" are considered demeaning and are rarely used. Modern women are single by choice, independent and self-sufficient, date men, and are just contented being unmarried.

Old Maid's day is a call to all single women and unmarried women to get together, celebrate and party. It is also a great day to celebrate the game of "Old Maid."

Intro photo is from my personal deck of Old Maid game card - Bakerwoman

The origin of the game of Old Maid is unknown, but versions of this game were played in the 17th century bar halls. The loser of the game would have to pay for the drinks.

There are many variants of the "Old Maid" card game all over the world. The rules are similar where whoever gets stuck with the unmatched odd card, whether it be the king, queen, joker or old maid is the loser.

The game of Old Maid is very easy to play and is a fun and educational game for children from 4 years old and up. Any standard 52-deck card can be used with 3 queens removed so the lone Queen will be the Old Maid. However, a vintage deck of card of Old Maid makes the game more fun with the exaggerated cartoonish characters. Different Old Maid cards have different themes, like fairy tales, circus performers, etc.

The goal of the game is to remove pairs of same cards from your hand and not to be left with the Old Maid card. The player left with the Old Maid card loses.

1. Number of players: 2-6

2. Pick a dealer. The dealer deals all the cards to all the players. One player will have an extra card.

3. Discard pairs of cards that have the same pictures.

4. The dealer offers the player to his/her left his/her cards face-down. The player picks one card and adds it to his/her hand and discards any matching pair.

5. The player who just selected a card then offers his hand face-down to the person to his/her left, and so on in a counterclockwise fashion.

Continue discarding matching pairs of cards until all players have no cards except one player who is stuck with the "Old Maid."

6. The player with the one unmatchable "Old Maid" is the loser.

The cartoonish characters make these cards delightful and fun to play for young and adults. This children's card game has been around for over a 100 years and still going strong.

Another reason to celebrate June 4

The tradition of celebrating "Old Maids Day" may have started after World War I and WWII where many soldiers did not return home and many of the ladies lost their love ones to war. In 1933, droves of unmarried women celebrated on St. Catherine's Day, the patron saint of old maids, in Paris, France to meet the single menfolk in dances.

Old Maids Day may have started in the United States after 1945 after WWII where small towns and communities held socials and dances for the single ladies left behind by the soldiers who were killed in the war. This also gave an opportunity to the soldiers who made it home to meet their future wives.

Celine Dion'e song "All By Myself" resonates the hurt, sadness and loneliness that Charlotte's felt throughout the movie.