Father’s Day, in the United States, is a holiday which now is celebrated on third Sunday in June to honor fathers. Credit for originating the holiday is customarily given to Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, whose father, a Civil War veteran, raised her and her five siblings after their mother died in childbirth.
Even though some form of a Father’s Day has been around for decades, it did not become a nationally recognized holiday in the United States until 1972, when President Richard Nixon signed Joint Resolution 187 into law.
The day recognizes the role of fathers in the family, which is an ancient tradition. Historians have mentioned a Southern European tradition dating back to 1508.
Father’s Day which is celebrated the third Sunday of June, usually falls on a day in which the ancient pagans honored their most powerful god, the Sun.
The first known Father’s Day service occurred in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908, after hundreds of men died in the worst mining accident in U.S. history.
Grace Golden Clayton, the daughter of a dedicated minister, proposed a service to honor all fathers, especially those who had died in the tragic event. However, the observance did not become an annual event, and it was not promoted. In fact, very few people outside of the local area knew about it.
In 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, was inspired by Anna Jarvis and her effort to promote Mother’s Day. Her father, William Jackson Smart, a farmer, and Civil War veteran, was also a single parent who raised Sonora and her five brothers alone, after his wife Ellen died giving birth to their youngest child in 1898. While attending a Mother’s Day church service in 1909, Ms. Dodd, then envisioned the idea for a day to honor fathers.
Within a few months, Ms. Dodd had convinced the Spokane Ministerial Association and the YMCA to set aside a Sunday in June to celebrate fathers. Religious leaders and the local YMCA signed a petition started by Dodd to create a day honoring fathers. Finally, on June 19, 1910, Spokane’s mayor and Washington state’s governor signed proclamations to celebrate the first Father’s Day.
On that day, the first Father’s Day events began. Ms. Dodd delivered presents to handicapped fathers, boys from the YMCA decorated their lapels with fresh-cut roses (red for living fathers, white for the deceased), and the city’s priests, pastors and ministers devoted their homilies to fatherhood.
The widely publicized events in Spokane struck a chord which reached Washington, D.C., and the celebration placed the idea on the path to becoming a national holiday. However, the holiday did not take root immediately perhaps due to its perceived parallels with Mother’s Day.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson and his family personally observed the day. Eight years later, President Calvin Coolidge signed a resolution in favor of Father’s Day “to establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.” During the Great Depression, with so many people pinching their pennies, the economy needed reasons for people to spend their limited funds. Father’s Day was promoted by struggling stores and businesses as an occasion to get fathers some of the necessities, such as clothing and other material goods they needed that dad would probably not buy for himself. Later, during World War II, men were on the front lines fighting to defend their country. The desire to support American troops and the war effort provided another reason to support and show appreciation for dads. Thereafter, in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order declaring that the holiday be celebrated on the third Sunday in June. Ultimately, under President Richard Nixon, in 1972, Congress passed an act officially making Father’s Day a national holiday. Six years later, Sonora Dodd died at age 96 having realized her dream of honoring all fathers in the United States. If you have any questions about the forgoing article, or have any legal questions or concerns, please contact the attorneys at the law firm of CASERTA & SPIRITI in Miami Lakes, Florida.