ORIGIN OF FATHER’S DAY
ORIGIN OF FATHER’S DAY
Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd of Washington was the one who proposed the idea of ”Father’s Day” in 1909.
Said lady wanted there to be a special day to honor her father, Henry Jackson Smart. Henry was a civil war veteran. He became a widower when his wife, Mrs. Dodd’s mother, died in childbirth of her sixth child. It was on a rural farm in Washington state that Mr. Smart took charge of the education of his six children.
Mrs. Dodd was aware of the great effort that her father had made, being a true example by raising all his children with values and good education very much in mind.
The first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington. This celebration spread to other cities in the United States during the following years. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge declared Father’s Day a national holiday. Finally, in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day.
In most Latin American countries, as well as in the United States and Canada, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June.
In Spain, Bolivia, Honduras, Italy and Portugal it is celebrated on March 19, the day of San José. In Brazil, on the other hand, it is celebrated every second Sunday of August. In the Dominican Republic it is celebrated on the last Sunday of July, and in Guatemala and El Salvador the celebration is June 17.
Father’s Day is a day to not only honor our father, but all men who act as a father figure. Stepfathers, uncles, grandparents, and in general the father figure are also celebrated, since they all deserve to be celebrated on Father’s Day.
Father: we pay tribute to you today because you have given us life, because you protect us, because you take care of us, because you educate us and because you care about us, your children. God bless you!
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