June 16, 2007

Father's Day is primarily a holiday inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother’s day in celebrating fatherhood and parenting by males, and to honour and commemorate fathers and grandfathers.

The idea for creating a day for children to honour their fathers began in Spokane, Washington. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909.

Having been raised by her father, William Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the June 19, 1910.

President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea of a national Father's Day. In 1926, a National Father's Day Committee was formed in New York City. Father's Day was recognised by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.

So Father's Day was born in recognition of the gratitude of a daughter who thought that her father and all good fathers should be honoured with a special day just like we honour our mothers on Mother's Day.