Father’s Day may be a day where you BBQ in a backyard somewhere to celebrate the fathers in your lives. It may see as the sister holiday to Mother’s Day-as Mother’s Day has been celebrated longer. However, Father’s Day is an important holiday. A time to cherish the men in your life.

Father’s Day was started by a daughter. Yup, that is why people should have daughters. Sonora Smart Dodd was in church one Sunday in May 1909 listening to a Mother’s Day sermon. She appreciated the sermon; however, her mother died in childbirth and her father, had taken the responsibility to raise her and her five siblings. Her father, William Jackson Smart was a Civil War veteran, and she wanted to show her father and other’s father appreciation.

The following year she pushed the mayor of Spokane, Washington to celebrate Father’s Day on June 5th, her father’s birthday. However, without enough time to get the celebration in order, the church pushed it back two weeks. The first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19th, 1910. Young women passed out red roses to their fathers. Women wore red roses for their fathers, and white roses, if their father was deceased.

Father’s Day gain popularity, however it took awhile to become an official holiday.

Fourteen years later, in 1924, President Coolidge said he supported it. Keep in mind, I wrote fourteen years later. He wanted to remind fathers the importance of their relationships with their children.

Fourteen years after that in 1938 a trade organization called the National Council for the Promotion of Father’s Day, which was formed by men’s clothing retailers in New York City took up the cause.

However, it still was not a national holiday. After WWII, the rise of America as a superpower, the civil rights, and the invasion of the Beatles, President Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers in 1966. Yes, 56 years after the first Father’s Day celebration.

Then six years after that President Nixon made it an official holiday. Yup, it became a holiday in 1972.

So why do we celebrate Father’s Day? Because a child wanted to recognize her father. I see nothing wrong with that.

Hugs and Smiles,
Nicole