The Observance of Father's Day

'Father' describes the generative force whether it be a spiritual, political or familial relation. You can speak of a Padre in the religious sense, the father of a country or your own dad and the term applies in some form.

History

Celebrations of the father figure pre-date history and are still expressed in many religions but to trace the roots of the modern Fathers' Day it is only necessary to go back one hundred years to the 5th of July in the year 1908. We find the Central United Methodist Church in Fairmont, West Virginia crowded to hear the commemoration of the paternal spirit by Dr. Robert Webb.

It was Sonora Dodd who became inspired by a Mother's Day sermon in 1909 to celebrate her own father's paternal sacrifices, during her childhood, in June of 1910 and then continue on to create the official holiday for the entire nation

Sonora Smart Dodd

Sonora was raised by her father William Smart after her mother died giving birth to Sonora's fifth sibling. The memories of her widowed father, a Civil War veteran, and the selfless devotion and loving attention to his young family had a lasting effect on the young girl.

This found an expression in the creation of a national day of celebration to honor her father and all those dedicated dads everywhere just as is done for mothers every year. Thanks to her active support a bill was submitted to congress in 1913 where it languished for more than a decade until presidential attention gave it some momentum.

Support of Commerce

The development of the Fathers' Day holiday took a very different route than did the rapid and enthusiastic acceptance of Mother's Day. At first it was supported mainly by churches and their auxiliary affiliations which did little to garner the hearts and minds of the populace in general.

What attention the occasion did receive was in the form of humor that made Fathers' Day the butt of the joke. Satire and derision had a field day at the holidays expense, comparing it to the National Knick-Knack Day sort of promotional celebration used as a sales vehicles.

It was the Associated Men's Wear Retailers that got behind the holiday by creating the National Father's Day Committee c.1930 and actively commercializing the occasion, using it as a means to boost sales and promote products for men. In 1938 they got more trade groups to advocate for the holiday and re-named the organization the National Council for the Promotion of Father's Day.

Legitimizing the celebration was aided by the help of Sonora Dodd who endorsed promotions for the council whenever asked. The observance of Father's Day as a national holiday was finalized in 1972 and by 1980 the National Council for the Promotion of Father's Day declared that the one day holiday had become another Christmas with weeks of increased sales around the third Sunday in June.

Three Presidents

It took three presidential acts over a period of forty eight years to finally make the observance of Father's Day a national holiday.

Both President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 and President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 signed presidential proclamations declaring the 3rd Sunday in June as Father's Day. In 1972 President Richard Nixon signed the law that made Father's Day officially celebrated on that date.

Roses

The official Father's Day flower is the rose. A tie, a flower and a BBQ are the 'fixin's' for a great celebration of that generative, paternal spirit that resides in all good fathers. Besides, every father already knows and appreciates how much he is blessed with his children, so a national day of recognition is really just icing on the cake, insubstantial but still sweet.

Reference:
www.morning-glow.com/
www.wilstar.com/holidays/
www.theholidayspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/
www.holidays.net/
www.funmunch.com/events/
www.loveyoufather.com/