Every time the third Sunday in June rolls around, we celebrate Father\u2019s Day. Most people know that Mother\u2019s Day got its start from the efforts of a West Virginian \u2014 Anna Jarvis. It turns out that West Virginia was also instrumental in the creation of Father\u2019s 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\u2019t transform into an annual tradition in the town, it did set a precedent of reserving a day for dads everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next year, in 1909, Spokane resident Sonora Smart Dodd was listening to a Mother\u2019s 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.\u00a0
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\u2019s Day celebration in 1910.
Dodd originally wanted \u201cFather\u2019s Day\u201d to be observed on June 5 \u2014 her father\u2019s 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 \u2014 it has remained there ever since.
Officially, the first Father\u2019s Day celebration took place on June 19, 1910.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019 Day. The opponents of the separate days saw the two holidays as a \u201cdivision of respect and affection\u201d for parents, especially during the time when Father\u2019s Day hadn\u2019t been officially recognized nationwide. The movement to combine the two days died out in the 40s, but if it had succeeded, apparently we\u2019d all be celebrating Parents\u2019 Day every year with the slogan, \u201cA kiss for mother, a hug for dad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Father\u2019s 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 \u2014 all the way from Washington D.C. in 1916. It\u2019s interesting that Wilson had signed a proclamation to recognize Mother\u2019s Day as a national holiday \u2014 he never signed the same paperwork for Father\u2019s Day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It took until 1966 for President Lyndon Johnson to make a nationwide proclamation endorsing Father\u2019s Day across the country. But nowhere in Johnson’s proclamation did it mention anything about what would happen on Father\u2019s Day next year. The resolution specified \u201cthe third Sunday in June of 1966.\u201d It wasn\u2019t until President Nixon signed Public Law 92-278, in 1972, that Father\u2019s Day was permanently recognized by the federal government.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Father\u2019s Day, or some form of the holiday, exists in 111 countries around the world. Many countries align with the U.S. and celebrate Father\u2019s Day on the third Sunday of June, some choose to honor fathers on March 19, also known as St. Joseph\u2019s Day. In some of those countries, the idea of Father\u2019s Day stretches back to the feast established in the Middle Ages to honor St. Joseph. The original celebrations focused on Joseph \u2014 the foster father of Jesus \u2014 and eventually turned into a day to honor the institution of fatherhood in general.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Korea isn\u2019t one of the 111 countries that observes Father\u2019s Day \u2014 the days to honor moms and dads are combined into a Parent\u2019s Day \u2014 held on May 8. Some people in the U.S. from the 1920s and 30s would be very pleased with that decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So it was a long road, but today it’s officially<\/em> Father\u2019s Day. Every time the third Sunday in June rolls around, we celebrate Father\u2019s Day. Most people know that Mother\u2019s Day got its start from the efforts of a West Virginian \u2014 Anna Jarvis. It turns out that West Virginia was also … Continue reading
Celebrate appropriately.\u00a0
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"