Following in the footsteps of Valentine’s Day which celebrates your loved one and Mother’s Day to show the woman in your life just how special she is, Father’s Day is a worldwide occasion in celebration of your dad.
Falling on the third Sunday in June, it celebrates the impact fathers and father figures have on the lives of their children. Although it is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide, it’s an internationally recognised event.
Father’s Day began around 100 years ago over in the US and has since made its mark all over the world.
The idea originated in the USA and has been officially celebrated there on the third Sunday in June since 1966.
The exact origins of what we now know as Father’s Day are disputed, though we do know the movement for a day which celebrated fatherhood began roughly 100 years ago.
Many believe that Sonora Dodd, from Washington, came up with the idea after hearing a Mother’s Day sermon in 1910 and wondering, not unreasonably, why fathers did not have their own day too.
Dodd and her siblings had been raised by their father as a single parent after their mother died in childbirth.
With the local YMCA and the Ministerial Association of Spokane, a city near where she was born, Dodd began a campaign to have the day officially recognised.
The first such “Father’s Day” was held in Spokane in 1910, with a number of towns and cities across America later following suit.
Others say it is Grace Golden Clayton, from Fairmont, West Virginia, who should be credited with the concept of Father’s Day, after she suggested a day celebrating fatherhood in 1908.
She put forward the idea following a mine explosion in a nearby town which killed more than 360 men – arguing that children in the town needed a time to remember their fathers.
Mrs Clayton may have been inspired by Anna Jarvis’ work to establish Mother’s Day; two months prior.
Now, the day exists simply to remind everyone that dads are great.
