The History and Meaning of Father's Day

The United States are one of a small handful of places in the world that celebrates Father's Day that falls on the second Sunday in June. According to history statistics the origin of it's foundation is unknown and unconfirmed. A Spokane, Washington woman named Mrs .Sonora Smart Dodd conceived the idea of Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Some say that Father's Day was born in the same state where Mother's Day was founded, but that too hasn't been confirmed, yet remains conflicted. This was similar to when Anna Jarvis had conceived the idea of Mother's Day as tribute to her mother, and Sonora Dodd wanted to establish a day in honor of her father who she described as a man who was a Civil War hero and had sacrificed a lot of years as a single father when he lost his wife in childbirth when she bore their 6^th child and was left to raise the baby and the other children by himself on a farm in eastern Washington. Sonora described her father as courageous and selfless. The first "official" date for Father's Day was June 5^th that was the birthday of Sonora's father, but her pastor had advised that it was too soon to prepare a sermon appropriate to the occasion until 2 weeks later on the 19^th that actually began as the official date for Father's Day. People celebrated with children making things and spending time with their fathers if they were in the home or living elsewhere.

In the early years as the holiday kind of went through different transformations before it ended up what it is today. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson had approved of Father's Day after countless lobbying and petitions started by other states and social organizations until 1924 when President Calvin Coolidge had made it a national event and according to his words quoted from the website Twlight Bridge(www.twilightbridge.com) "To establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations". Since that time fathers were honored and given recognition on the 3^rd Sunday in June. President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed a presidential proclamation making Father's Day an official holiday on the 3^rd Sunday in June of 1966. Last June marked the 40^th anniversary of that declaration being signed by Johnson and to this day Father's Day is still celebrated by people across America, but only the fathers who have really been there for their children are worth the celebration, the deadbeat, absentee fathers are not permitted to partake in a day that's reserved for the real men who have taken on the monumental task of raising another man or men's children whether it's a stepfather, grandfather, uncle, play-father, godfather, goduncle, or whoever is a father figure in the lives of children.

It's amazing that the percentage of real fathers has gone down and there's more deadbeat fathers than actual men who are true and real fathers to their children who are involved in every aspect of their lives and support them like they should be doing. It's too bad that many of the fathers who are absent due to incarceration or just simply not wanting anything to do with their children are missing out on seeing their children grow up. As a product of an absentee/deadbeat father, he's missed seeing me graduate high school and college and he won't be around to see me get married or the birth of his grandchildren. This is what happens when men want to help bring children into the world, but don't want to honor their obligation and responsibility to them especially if the children are legally theirs.

Some cities also set up Father's Day as the time they round up deadbeat fathers who are deliquent in their child support so it's not just about celebrating the positive things fathers do, it also celebrates justice for the many children who's father's are being held accountable by legal means to pay for the children they helped bring into this world.