Father's Day Origins

Third Sunday of June

A Man’s World from - www.corporategiftsboston.com

The first person that probably makes you laugh is your Father! In their awkward attempts to pull funny faces, cradle and croon, any thing to avoid the melancholy ear piercing wail that announces a need for food or a wet diaper! They are the one’s we look to for fixing a broken toy, the one that has the best back to climb, the one that may teach us to ride a bike or play a sport and let’s be honest, no matter what Mother does for us, the one we long to see at the end of the day as our returning hero…….

We look up to them as the future man we intend to be or the future man we intend to marry, in most cases…… They are a tower of strength, admiration and un-conditional love. Daddy…………

This is what Sonora Dodd felt when you came up with the idea of Father’s Day in 1909. She had been listening to a Mother’s day sermon and thought of how her Father had coped when he was left with a new born baby and 5 other children on the death of his wife in childbirth. He was a Father and Mother to herself and her siblings and did so selflessly with all the usual sacrifices that parents make, but all alone.

Her Father’s birthday was in June and she chose that month to hold the first father’s day celebration in Spokane Washington on the 19^th June 1910. It took until 1924, for the then President Calvin Coolidge to recognize the day and support it, but it took until 1972 for Richard Nixon to sign and establish a national observance on the third Sunday in June each year.

Although the third week in June is popular in most countries, it can vary from country to country. In Germany, there is no such thing as father’s day, they celebrate Mannertag –or Herrentag, gentlemens day, and this dates way back. It is celebrated on Ascension day and usually involves a hiking trip, male only and is accompanied with a wagon laden with food and drink, wine and beer. It appears that it may have been a tradition of initiating young men into the ways of intense drinking!

Times have changed, and it is now not just the Mother that nurtures and brings up the children. Families may have both parents working, and Father helps with many of the child rearing duties, taxi-ing, feeding, cleaning, guiding and more and more being the pivot around which the family grows and evolves as well as Mother. Although still not as popular as Mother’s day, it is still a wonderful opportunity to thank and honor your Father.