Father’s Day
Father’s Day celebration honor fatherhood and paternal bounds in many societies, especially in the catholic communities in Europe. March 19 was known as St Joseph’s Day since the Middle Ages, but in the United States it is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. This day varies around the world depending on their traditions.
It is recognized a national holiday in countries like Lithuania, Spain, Estonia, Italy, Samoa, South Korea.
Father’s Day is seen as a special day to celebrate fatherhood. In the USA. honoring the influence of a father in the society was discussed in Washington state (Spokane) in 2010 at a YMCA meeting when a lady named Smart Dodd from Arkansas wanted to honor her father, a Civil War veteran, single parent who raised his six children.
She wanted for fathers to have a similar day to “Mother’s Day” and the third Sunday of June was chosen. For a while after, the tradition was not followed but in 1930, the Father’s Day council was founded in New-York to consolidate the commercial promotion.
People resisted the idea for decades until the 1980’s when “Father’s Day” become the second Christmas for all men to receive gifts. The United States Congress has introduced a bill in 1913 and President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation. Some state Senators like Margaret Smith, in Maine, were accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for years while favoring mothers.
Finally, in 1966 Lyndon B Johnson issued a presidential proclamation honoring Fathers, designating the third Sunday of June as “Father’s Day” but it is only in 1972 that it was signed into law by Richard Nixon. In the world, there is also an international Men’s Day celebrated in many countries in November 19.
In anyway, today, the third Sunday of June remains the day we celebrate all the fathers in the United States and I would like to offer this poem written by an unknown author:
“If we have forgotten to show our Gratitude,
Enough for all the things you did,
We are thanking you now
And we are hoping you knew all along
How much you mean to us.”
Maxime Coles MD
Boca Raton Fl
6-12-2022