A little about Father's Day...
Father's Day is a secular celebration inaugurated in the early
twentieth century to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and
parenting by males, and to honor and commemorate fathers and
forefathers. Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates
worldwide and typically involves gift-giving to fathers and
family-oriented activities.
In the United States, the first modern Father's Day
celebration was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia.
It was first celebrated as a church service at Williams Memorial
Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United
Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton, who is believed to have
suggested the service to the pastor, is believed to have been
inspired to celebrate fathers after the deadly mine explosion in
nearby Monongah the prior December. This explosion killed 361 men,
many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States
from Italy. Another possible inspiration for the service was
Mother's Day, which had been celebrated for the first time two
months prior in Grafton, West Virginia, a town about 15 miles
away.
Another driving force behind the establishment of
the integration of Father's Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, born in
Creston, Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran William
Jackson Smart, as a single parent reared his six children in
Spokane, Washington. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis's efforts to
establish Mother's Day. Although she initially suggested June 5,
the anniversary of her father's death, she did not provide the
organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the
celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. The first
June Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane,
WA.
Unofficial support from such figures as William
Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow
Wilson was personally feted by his family in 1916. President Calvin
Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966,
President Lyndon Johnson made Father's Day a holiday to be
celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not
officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard
Nixon.
In recent years, retailers have adapted to the
holiday by promoting male-oriented gifts such as electronics, tools
and greeting cards. Schools and other children's programs commonly
have activities to make Father's Day gifts.