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Father's Day
Just like Mother's Day, Father's Day is celebrated in every part of the world. In the United States, Canada and most countries in Asia, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. Although Father's Day is not observed on the same day in some countries (like Spain and Belgium where Father's Day falls on March 19th, Sweden on the second Sunday of November, and New Zealand on the first Sunday of September), expressing gratitude and appreciation for dads with a special day seems to be universal.
Today, Father's Day is not only a day to honor fathers, but one to show respect for all father figures. Families honor grandfathers, stepfathers, uncles and other adult male figures that are special to them.
Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, of Spokane, Washington, was 27 when she listened to a Sunday sermon about Mother's Day in 1909 and wondered why there was no corresponding day for fathers. (Mother's Day observances began in 1908 in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, by Anna Marie Jarvis.)
Dodd was just 16 years old when her own father, Civil War veteran, William Jackson Smart, was widowed when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his five other children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state.
Dodd began her campaign after that sermon in 1909. She believed that the nation did not show enough respect to fathers, citing such popular songs of the day as "Everybody Works But Father," she promoted Father's Day out of love for her father.
"One group of men conventioneers laughed and said they didn't want a Father's Day," according to an article in the Spokesman-Review. "A national day of fishing would be better, they told her."
She persuaded the Spokane Ministerial Association and local YMCA to pass a resolution in support of Father's Day, and the first local Father's Day was observed on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington.
Dodd wanted Father's Day to be celebrated on the first Sunday in June, her father's birthday. However, the Spokane council could not get the resolution through the first reading until the third Sunday in June.
States and organizations began lobbying Congress to declare an annual Father's Day. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson approved of this idea, but it was not until 1924 when President Calvin Coolidge made it a national event to "establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations." In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day.