When officially legislating Mother’s Day as an official holiday, President Woodrow Wilson said it was in honor of “that tender, gentle army, the mothers of America.” Mother’s Day was made official in 1914, but it was not until 1972 that the United States began recognizing the other half of the parental unit through Father’s Day, and it was a tumultuous road to legislation. The origin of Father’s Day has many folds, as with most holidays. The story of the earliest Father’s Day is actually somewhat of a recent discovery, found among the ruins of Babylon. A clay tablet was recovered from a boy by the name of Elmesu, and judging by its content, it seemed to be a “Father’s Day card,” wishing his father to have a good, healthy, long life.
The “card” dated back to 4,000 years ago. The next time Father’s Day was referenced in history was in the fifth century with the Coptic Church, which celebrated fatherhood on July 20 for St. Joseph’s Day. In the Middle Ages in Catholic Europe, the Catholic church honored the same celebration, though on March 19. The religious overtones dominated Father’s Day over the centuries until it finally arrived in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.
Several attempts were actually made to make a Father’s Day celebration official, starting with Jane Addams in Chicago in 1911 and Lions Clubs International member Harry C. Meek in 1915, but these did not stick. Spokane, Washington, however, was a different story. In 1910, a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd organized the first Father’s Day celebration at the Spokane YMCA in honor of her father, who was a single parent and Civil War veteran who raised her and her five siblings. A member of Knox Presbyterian Church, she urged local city pastors to preach sermons honoring fathers on June 5, which was her father’s birthday. Unable to prepare in time, however, the date was moved to June 19.
The momentum lost speed over the next few years as Dodd became a student at the Art Institute of Chicago, but picked up again in 1924 when President Calvin Coolidge advocated for the holiday, which he said would “establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children.” In the 1920s and 1930s, people moved to get rid of both Mother’s and Father’s Day celebrations entirely and replace them with one day – Parents’ Day. Their argument was that both parents should be appreciated on the same level, together. Retailers needed to commercialize the holiday, however, especially after the Great Depression, and the arrival of World War II gave them an opportunity to capitalize on the holiday as a way to be patriotic in supporting the troops.
Finally, in 1972, President Richard Nixon signed the legislation to make Father’s Day an official federal holiday. In comparison to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day still trails behind in terms of commercialization. In 2015, nearly $13 billion was spent nationwide on spending for Father’s Day, as opposed to the $21 billion spent on Mother’s Day. But with the addition of the holiday to United States history, the 70.1 million fathers that live in America now receive the same level of honor and appreciation as mothers.
This June 18th, join the rest of the nation in an outpouring of love and admiration for the other half of the parental unit, whether it be a father, grandfather, father figure, or husband. Happy Father’s Day!