A Day for Dad

  So Father’s Day is on Sunday, and my dad’s coming to town.  We haven’t spent a Father’s Day together in five years or more, and I’m looking forward to it.  As a single father, schoolteacher and coach, he didn’t have it easy.  He even worked a third job for a while, as a butcher in the meat market at the local grocery store.  In the summers, he taught summer school or driver’s ed classes.  From him I learned my appreciation for music, and the importance of education; he taught me to never stop learning. 

  That’s why, when I realized I knew nothing about Father’s Day, I began doing a little research.  I knew that Father’s Day is in June, but didn’t know that it’s always on the third Sunday.  (Like Memorial Day and Labor Day, I always just checked the calendar.)  I wanted to know when it started, and if it was only celebrated in America.  So I went online, and asked Jeeves.

  There are several different versions about the origins of Father’s Day, but the most widely-accepted version seems to be that it was started by Mrs. Sonora James Dodd of Spokane, Washington in 1910.  Mother’s Day had been celebrated in various cities in the United States for three years, based on an old English tradition dating back to the 1600s.  After attending a Mother’s Day church service in Spokane, Sonora Dodd wanted a holiday to honor her father, William Smart, who had raised her and her five siblings alone after their mother died in childbirth.

  Mrs. Dodd wanted to celebrate Father’s Day on June 5, her father’s birthday, but planning the event she fell behind schedule and the first Father’s Day wasn’t celebrated until June 19, 1910.  It was officially recognized that year by the mayor of Spokane and the governor of Washington.  And with that, it began catching on around the country.

  In 1924, president Calvin Coolidge publicly supported a plan to create a national Father’s Day, but it wasn’t until 1966 that President Lyndon Johnson issued a presidential proclamation declaring Father’s Day a national holiday, to be observed the third Sunday in June.  Then, in 1972, President Richard Nixon signed the proclamation into law, creating as a national holiday a permanent U.S. Father’s Day.

  But the United States isn’t the only country that celebrates Father’s Day.  In Mexico, Father’s Day is celebrated on June 17 every year.  It’s a day to spend with dad, have some “barbacoa,” and regale him with manly gifts like shoes, clothes, and pens. 

  In Colombia, Father’s Day is observed on the second Sunday in June, and is celebrated in a manner similar to U.S. traditions.  The American holiday made its way to Japan, which also celebrates its day for dad on the third Sunday in June.  Some elementary and middle schools hold special classes, so that fathers who ordinarily work during the week can see firsthand how their children are doing in school.

  However you and your family choose to celebrate, make it all about dad.  And Happy Father’s Day!

 -From Pulse
   June 16, 2005