Father's Day

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For other uses, see Father's Day (disambiguation).

Father's Day
Observed by	Most countries
Type	Historical
Date	Varies regionally
Related to	Mother's Day

Father's Day is a primarily secular 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 forefathers. Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide, and typically involves gift-giving to fathers and family-oriented activities.

1 Dates
2 History
- 2.1 United States
- 2.2 Roman Catholic tradition
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Dates

The officially recognised date of Father's Day varies from country to country. This section lists some significant examples.

[edit] March 19

Countries observing Father's Day on 19 March include:

Belgium (also secular celebration on the second Sunday of June), Italy, Portugal and Spain.

[edit] June 23

Countries observing Father's Day on 23 June include:

Poland and Nicaragua.

[edit] Third Sunday of June

Countries observing Father's Day on the third Sunday of June include:

Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Hong Kong S.A.R., India, Ireland, Japan, Macao S.A.R., Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.

[edit] First Sunday of September

Countries observing Father's Day on the first Sunday of September include:

Australia and New Zealand.

[edit] Second Sunday of November

Countries observing Father's Day on the second Sunday of November include:

Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

[edit] Other dates

Countries with other celebration dates include:

Russia: February 23 (Defender of the Fatherland Day, a military holiday, seen by many as a men's day)
South Korea: May 8 (Parents' Day)
Germany: Ascension Day
Denmark: June 5 (also Constitution Day)
Lithuania: first Sunday of June
Austria: second Sunday of June
Vietnam: July 7 (Parents' Day)
Dominican Republic: last Sunday of July
Iran: 13 Rajab, birthday of Ali
Taiwan: August 8
The word for the date, bā bā, (8/8) is a near-homonym of the word for father in Chinese, "爸爸" bàba.
Brazil: second Sunday of August
Thailand: December 5 (birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej)

[edit] History

[edit] United States

In the United States, the first modern Father's Day celebration was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia. <ref name="wvah1">Barth, Kelly. "First Father's Day service in 1908", Dominion Post (Morgantown, West Virginia), June 21, 1987. Retrieved on November 7, 2006.</ref><ref name="wvah2">Smith, Vicki. "The first Father's Day", Martinsburg Journal (Martinsburg, West Virginia), June 15, 2003. Retrieved on November 7, 2006.</ref> It was first celebrated as a church service at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton, who is believed to have suggested the service to the pastor, is believed to have been inspired to celebrate fathers after the deadly mine explosion in nearby Monongah the prior December. This explosion killed 361 men, many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States from Italy. Another possible inspiration for the service was Mother's Day, which was recently celebrated for the first time in Grafton, West Virginia, a town about 15 miles away.

Another driving force behind the establishment of the celebration of Father's Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Creston, Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, as a single parent raised his six children in Spokane, Washington. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis's efforts to establish Mother's Day. Although she initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of her father's death, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. The first June Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane.

Unofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow Wilson was personally feted by his family in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made Father's Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon.

In recent years, retailers have adapted to the holiday by selling male-oriented gifts such as electronics and tools. Schools and other children's programs commonly have activities to make Father's Day gifts.

[edit] Roman Catholic tradition

In the Roman Catholic tradition, Father's Day is celebrated on Saint Joseph's Day, 19 March, though in most countries Father's Day is a secular celebration.

[edit] Trivia

More reverse-charge (collect) telephone calls are made on Father's Day than on any other day.<ref>The Book of Useless Information, page 240, published 2002.</ref>
In the UK, Father's Day is nine months before Mothering Sunday - suggestions have been made that Father gets his present on Father's Day, and Mother gets hers nine months later!