Every time the third Sunday in June rolls around, we celebrate Father’s Day. Most people know that Mother’s Day got its start from the efforts of a West Virginian — Anna Jarvis. It turns out that West Virginia was also instrumental in the creation of Father’s Day. On July 5, 1908, a small church in West Virginia held the first public event meant to specifically honor the fathers of their community. The day was held in remembrance of the 362 men who were killed the previous December in a mining explosion at the Fairmont Coal Company. Even though that specific day didn’t transform into an annual tradition in the town, it did set a precedent of reserving a day for dads everywhere.
The next year, in 1909, Spokane resident Sonora Smart Dodd was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at her local church when she had the idea to attempt to establish a similar day to honor the fathers of the community. Dodd was the daughter of a widower and Civil War veteran named William Jackson Smart, who raised six children on his own after his wife died during childbirth.
Dodd contacted local church groups, government officials, YMCAs, businesses and other groups hoping to gain community support to recognize fathers around the state of Washington. Her campaign eventually culminated in the first statewide Father’s Day celebration in 1910.
Dodd originally wanted “Father’s Day” to be observed on June 5 — her father’s birthday. But the mayor of Spokane and the local churches asked for more time to prepare for all the festivities involved and it was moved to the third Sunday in June — it has remained there ever since.
Officially, the first Father’s Day celebration took place on June 19, 1910.
It so happens that not everyone was happy with the idea of having two separate days to celebrate Mothers and Fathers. In the 1920s and 30s, there was a movement to join the two days as a unified Parents’ Day. The opponents of the separate days saw the two holidays as a “division of respect and affection” for parents, especially during the time when Father’s Day hadn’t been officially recognized nationwide. The movement to combine the two days died out in the 40s, but if it had succeeded, apparently we’d all be celebrating Parents’ Day every year with the slogan, “A kiss for mother, a hug for dad.”
After Father’s Day began to be celebrated in other regions of the country, not just Washington State, Woodrow Wilson commemorated it by unfurling an American flag in Spokane using a special telegraph — all the way from Washington D.C. in 1916. It’s interesting that Wilson had signed a proclamation to recognize Mother’s Day as a national holiday — he never signed the same paperwork for Father’s Day.
It took until 1966 for President Lyndon Johnson to make a nationwide proclamation endorsing Father’s Day across the country. But nowhere in Johnson’s proclamation did it mention anything about what would happen on Father’s Day next year. The resolution specified “the third Sunday in June of 1966.” It wasn’t until President Nixon signed Public Law 92-278, in 1972, that Father’s Day was permanently recognized by the federal government.
Father’s Day, or some form of the holiday, exists in 111 countries around the world. Many countries align with the U.S. and celebrate Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June, some choose to honor fathers on March 19, also known as St. Joseph’s Day. In some of those countries, the idea of Father’s Day stretches back to the feast established in the Middle Ages to honor St. Joseph. The original celebrations focused on Joseph — the foster father of Jesus — and eventually turned into a day to honor the institution of fatherhood in general.
South Korea isn’t one of the 111 countries that observes Father’s Day — the days to honor moms and dads are combined into a Parent’s Day — held on May 8. Some people in the U.S. from the 1920s and 30s would be very pleased with that decision.
So it was a long road, but today it’s officially Father’s Day.
Celebrate appropriately.
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