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PAGE 8 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT • JUNE / JULY 2020
Celebrating Fathers
Merchants promoted the purchase of
gifts for dads, such as neckties, hats, socks,
pipes and tobacco, golf clubs and other
sporting goods, and greeting cards.
When the United States entered World
War II, advertisers began spreading the idea
that celebrating Father’s Day honored men
serving as soldiers and supported the war
effort. By the end of the war, Father’s Day
was still not a federal holiday, but it was a
national institution.
Congress recognized Father’s Day in
1956 with the passage of a joint resolution.
Ten years later, President Lyndon Johnson
issued a proclamation calling for the third
Sunday in June to be recognized as Father’s
Day. Finally, in 1972, President Richard
Nixon permanently established Father’s
Day as a federally recognized holiday.
The United States isn’t the only country
celebrating Father’s Day. France also holds
“La Fete des Peres” on the third Sunday
in June. So does Mexico, where “El Dia del
© Yastremska, Bigstock.com.
Padre” means gifts for dads and big family
shopkeepers, and government officials to dinners. A major 21K race in Mexico City is
BY KATHLEEN MULROY drum up support for her idea. also held in honor of fathers.
She was successful, and Washington Australians celebrate the occasion on
On July 5, 1908, a Sunday, a West Virginia State celebrated its first Father’s Day that the first Sunday in September. In Italy,
church sponsored what historians believe same year. It wasn’t held on her father’s Spain, and Portugal, dads are honored on St.
was the first event in the United States birthday, though, but on the 19th of June. Joseph’s Day, a traditional Catholic holiday
held specifically to honor fathers. However, Gradually, the concept of a Father’s Day that falls on March 19.
this was not exactly a happy occasion; the celebration spread from state to state. On In Nepal, religious rituals honoring
minister’s sermon memorialized the 362 June 19, 1916, the idea received recognition fathers are celebrated in late summer.
men—many of them fathers—who had died from the White House. President Woodrow People spend time with their dads, giving
in the previous December’s explosions at Wilson honored fathers by using telegraph gifts and eating special meals. If the father
the Fairmont Coal Company mines. signals in Washington, D.C. to unfurl a flag is deceased, family members often visit holy
It would take several years for Father’s in Spokane. places to perform rituals.
Day to become the upbeat and celebratory In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge sug- Russia celebrates Defender of the
day we know today. gested the third Sunday in June of that year Fatherland Day on February 23. Parades are
In 1910, a Spokane, Wash., woman, be recognized as a day to honor fathers and held honoring members of the armed forces,
named Sonora Smart Dodd, lobbied to encouraged states to do the same. and women recognize the men in their lives,
establish a state-sanctioned Father’s During the 1920s and 1930s, a movement including fathers, with small gifts.
Day, to be held on her beloved father’s arose to combine Mother’s Day—a federal In Germany, Father’s Day takes place on
birthday, June 5. holiday held on the third Sunday of May Ascension Day, the 40th day of the Easter
Dodd, one of six children raised by her since 1914—and Father’s Day, which was season. Called “Vatertag,” “Mannertag,”
widower father, went to local churches, the still an unofficial event, into a single com- or “Herrentag,” depending on the region,
YMCA, the Spokane Ministerial Alliance, memoration called Parents’ Day. During the day often involves men dressing up in
those years, pro-Parents’ Day groups ral- unusual outfits and pulling wagons full of
lied for their cause on Mother’s Day in liquor. It’s quite likely that some drinking
New York City’s Central Park. The Great of that liquor follows the thirsty work of
Depression ended this effort to combine, wagon-pulling!
This year in the United States, Father’s
Cremation Society as well as de-commercialize, the holidays, Day occurs on June 21. We hope that all
as struggling retailers and advertisers saw
of Idaho a potential for a boost in sales. To this end, of you dads—and father figures—have a
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