Happy Father’s Day
This day is a day to honor all good fathers who contribute to the betterment and well being of the children with equal intensity as the mother. Father’s Day has become a day to not only honor your father, but all men who act as a father figure. Stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, and adult male friends are all honored on Father’s Day.
The idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father’s Day while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909.
Hearing that heart touching sermon, she decided to dedicate a day to her dad William Jackson Smart. Mr. Smart lost his wife when Senora was only 16 years old. He raised her and her 5 siblings as a single parent.
She realized how difficult it must have been for her father. She decided that her father’s greatness should not go unacknowledged. To show how deeply she was touched by his sacrifices, courage, and love she celebrated the first Father’s Day on 19th of June 1910, on his birthday.
It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora’s father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.
So Father’s Day was born in memory and gratitude by a daughter who thought that her father and all good fathers should be honored with a special day just like we honor our mothers on Mother’s Day.
After much deliberation and criticism, the idea of celebrating Father’s Day soon caught on and in
- 1924 - President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father’s Day.
- 1926 – a National Father’s Day Committee was formed in New York City.
- 1956 - a Joint Resolution of Congress gave recognition to Father’s Day.
- 1972 – after sixteen years President Richard Nixon established the third Sunday of June as a permanent national observance of Father’s Day.
