Did You Know?

The history of Father’s Day

By BethAnne Brink-Cox House and Home Writer

Do you know very much about Father’s Day?

Seems most of the cards feature golf or fishing or lawn mowing, but the origins of this holiday have nothing to do with any of those things. It’s very special in my family and always has been, having a Daddy who chose my mom, my baby brother and me to be his own, and give us his name, a name I still carry proudly linked to my husband’s.

The first known Father’s Day service occurred in Fairmont, W.Va. on July 5, 1908 to honor hundreds of miners, who had died in the worst mining accident in U.S. history. While it honored all fathers as well as the fallen, it didn’t become an annual event.

Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Wash., is credited for originating Father’s Day. Her father was a Civil War veteran and raised her and her five siblings after their mother died in childbirth, leaving children from 16 to newborn. Dodd, in an interview years later, said her dad assumed both roles of father and mother, performing them with courage and selflessness until all of the children were grown and on their own.

She got the idea in 1909 when she was 27, listening to a Sunday sermon about Mother’s Day, which was then being recognized as a holiday. After the sermon was over, Dodd, who was expecting her own child, approached the pastor and told him, “I liked everything you said about motherhood, but don’t you think fathers should have a special day, too?”

Not content with just the comment, she rallied to make it happen, circulating petitions and convincing the Spokane Ministerial Association and the YMCA to set aside one Sunday in June; she proposed June 5, as it was her father’s birthday. The third Sunday was chosen to allow more time after Mother’s Day.

That first official Father’s Day, Dodd delivered gifts to handicapped fathers, and boys from the YMCA pinned roses on their lapels (red for living fathers, white for deceased).

First celebrated in 1910, President Woodrow Wilson and his family honored Father’s Day in 1916; he approved it, but never signed a proclamation for it. President Calvin Coolidge gave his support in 1924, calling the day “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 B. Johnson issued a proclamation recognizing the day, and finally in 1972, President Richard Nixon signed the legislation that designated the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day.

Dodd’s father, William Jackson Smart, died in 1919, but she lived well into the 1970s, dying 6 years after Nixon signed the legislation for Father’s Day.

Just remember, these days he’s not so likely to want the classic gift of many decades: a tie. So fire up the barbecue! Bring on the cards (homemade is just fine) bake a cake, pin a red or white rose on your husband, father, uncle, son, grandfather–any man in your life who was and is part of your raising–and celebrate him, and all he has brought to your family and its history! Don’t forget to take pictures, and relive some oral history with family stories and memories. It’s every bit as special as Mother’s Day. n

Other countries and cultures have celebrated fathers in their way, too:

– There are mentions of Southern European traditions all the way back to 1508!

– Catholic countries in Europe celebrate on March 19 as Saint Joseph’s Day, and have done so since the Middle Ages.

– The Taiwanese celebrate Father’s Day on Aug. 8. The eighth day of the eighth month, because the Mandarin Chinese word for eight sounds like their word for “Papa.” In Thailand, Father’s Day is celebrated on former King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s birthday, Dec. 5. (The king reigned from 1946-

2016.) ... and now you know!

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