A Tribute: Fathers and Father’s Day

There are two stories of how, why, and when the first Father’s Day was celebrated:

1. The first Father’s Day was celebrated in Washington state on June 19, 1910.  Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at church in 1909 when she thought of the idea of a day to celebrate fathers. She felt mothers were getting all the attention with their special day.
2. The other story took place in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908 when Grace Golden Clayton suggested to the minister of the local Methodist church that they hold services to celebrate fathers after a deadly mine explosion killed 361 men.

The idea of a Father’s Day did not meet with same enthusiasm as Mother’s Day. As one florist  said, “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.”

And it did take a while for Father’s Day to come into its own. While Father’s Day was celebrated in communities across the country, it still wasn’t a national celebration.

In 1916, President Wilson marked the day by using telegraph signals in Washington D.C. to unfurl a flag in Spokane. 

William Jennings Bryant was one of its staunchest proponents. And in 1924 President Calvin  Coolidge recommended that Father’s Day become a national holiday.

But no official action was taken.

 In 1966 Lyndon B. Johnson,with an executive order, designated the third Sunday in June as the official day to celebrate Father’s Day. Finally, in 1972, during the Nixon administration, Father’s Day was officially recognized as a national holiday.

Apparently, some men still aren’t down with Father’s Day.  As one historian writes, they “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving . . . often paid for by the father himself.”

During the 1920s a movement arose to combine Mother’s Day and Father’s Day into a single Day, Parent’s Day. But then came the Great Depression, and struggling businesses wanted the sales that both separate holidays could bring them. When World War II started, advertisers argued that Father’s Day was a good way to honor our troops and support the war effort. 

In some  countries, particularly in Europe and Latin America, fathers are honored on St. Joseph’s Day, a traditional Catholic holiday on March 19.

Here are some other countries’ days for celebrating fathers:

• March 19– Bolivia, Honduras, Italy, Lichtenstein, Portugal, Spain
• May 8– South Korea
• Second Sunday in June– Austria, Ecuador, Belgium
• Third Sunday in June– Antigua, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Trinidad, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Zimbabwe
• June 23– Nicaragua, Poland, Uganda
• Second Sunday in July– Uruguay
• Last Sunday in July– Dominican Republic
• Second Sunday in August– Brazil
• August 8– Taiwan, China
• August 24– Argentina
• First Sunday in September– Australia, New Zealand
• New Moon of September– Nepal
• First Sunday in October– Luxembourg
• Second Sunday in November– Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden
• December 5– Thailand