Puss Sunday

The folks of County Clare, Ireland, have a rather unpleasant way of celebrating what is there known as "Puss" Sunday — the first Sunday in Lent, — by making general sport of all young women who failed to get husbands before Ash Wednesday, and are, consequently, left over for another season, and are known as "pussy" girls. It seems to be a local April fool's day for the spinsters, with whom the small boys have a good deal of fun, it being one of their favorite amusements to dip their hands in flour and leave the imprint of their fingers on the backs of these luckless ones, or to mark them with chalk, as they appear in the street, as unmistakable signs that they are still in the market.