A time of special recognition of fathers dates back to times when the Romans celebrated a holiday honoring parents that had passed on. These were times of celebration, decorations, family reunions and huge family feasts.
However, the official Father's Day as we have come to recognize it goes back to just after the turn of the century - 1908.It was on July 5 that year, when a special Father's Day church service was held in Fairmont, W.V.
The next year Mrs. John (Sonora) Dodd was listening to a Mother's Day service in Spokane, Wash., when a thought came to her. She pondered it a moment, then asked: if mothers are to be honored, then why not the fathers?
She went to work and due to her efforts, in 1910, Spokane became th first city to honor the fathers of the world.
Mrs. Dodd wanted Father's Day to be on June 5, which was her father's birthday. However, the ministers of the city decided that it should be the third Sunday in June - and so it was.
In 1915, the Chicago Uptown Lions Club sponsored Father's Day. They got other Lions Clubs across the nation to do the same. By 1916, President Wilson was celebrating the holiday.
Eight years later President Calvin Coolidge suggested the day be celebrated nationally. He refused, however, to make it a national holiday, as was Mother's Day at the time. Since 1942, a Father of the Year has been selected by the National Father's Day Committee. In spite of this, it wasn't until 1972 that Father's Day became a lasting day of national celebration. In that year, President Richard M. Nixon made Father's Day a national observance . . . and so it is today.
Actually, the day has been moved about from time to time, but now it is always celebrated as the third Sunday in June . . . This year June 18.
According to history, it was Mrs. Dodd's father and his selfless devotion to his six children that led to the national observance.
Her father, Bill Smart, single-handedly raised his six children. He never remarried after his wife died following the Civil War, and for 21 years shouldered the dual role of provider and nurturer. His unlikely behavior deeply affected his only daughter, Sonora. She went on to persuade the Spokane Ministerial Alliance and the YMCA to establish a day to honor fathers.
Today, more than 40 different countries observe Father's Day.
In the United States, 95 percent of all Americans celebrate the day.