Father’s Day Story

father day story

Father’s Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves gift-giving, and special dinners to fathers and family-oriented activities.
There was a tradition to celebrate Father’s Day around thousands of years ago. In Babylon a son called Elmesu carved a father’s day message on a clay card. In his message Elmesu wished his father a long and healthy life. There is no knowledge as to what happened to this father son duo but it is believed that several countries retained the custom of celebrating Father’s Day.

The actual beginnings of Father’s Day are rather sketchy, and there are several stories of how this holiday started. While these are considered to be true, probably the most common and widespread story is that the June holiday that is known today as Father’s Day is said to have started growing its roots in the year of 1909.

A woman by the name of Mrs. John B. Dodds, who lived in Spokane, Washington, campaigned for a Father’s Day celebration. Her interest in having an organized holiday for fathers was sparked after she heard a church sermon on the virtues of Mother’s Day. The sermon reminded Mrs. Dodds about her childhood years, when her mother had passed away while in childbirth with her sixth child. Mrs. Dodds’ father, William Smart, who was a veteran of the Civil War, was then left to carry on as both father and mother to the newborn baby and their five other children. With medical doctors being in short supply, and medicine being in just its early stages of development, many women died while giving birth to their babies. It was simply, at that time, a hazard of the effort to bring forth new life onto the earth. And when Mrs. Dodds thought of all fathers’ great role. She decided that they all should be honored with a special day all their own. She campaigned and worked to spread her message, and even got the help of friends and family to write letters to influential people who could make this dream happen for her. And, finally, after much hard work and determination, a local celebration was finally proclaimed in the year of 1910. Mrs. Dodds wanted the date of the holiday to be on her father’s birthday, which was the fifth of June, but the festivities had to be moved to the nineteenth of June so there would be enough time to prepare.

Eventually, annual celebrations blossomed throughout the United States and Canada, but it wasn’t until 1972, when Richard M. Nixon signed a congressional resolution that Father’s Day became established. Finally, over sixty years later, after it was first campaigned for, Father’s Day was officially established as being celebrated on the third Sunday of every June.
With the transformation of the American family throughout the years, this holiday was expanded to include honoring not only fathers, but also stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, guys that act as big brothers, and any other males that have played the father role in ones’ life.