Father’s Day

"It doesn't matter who my father was: it matters who I remember he was" — Anne Sexton

Tomorrow is Father's Day and my Son's First.  I can't be prouder of the Man he's become…both as a Husband and Father.  Our Grandaughter is now 4 months old and a joy.  We'll have the whole family over for dinner, which is normal for any Sunday, but of course, tomorrow will be special for the Dads in our Family.  When I thought about it, I wondered where the tradition started.

Here's what Widipedia says about the history of Father's Day: 

The first observance of Father's Day is believed to have been held on June 19, 1910 through the efforts of Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington. After listening to a church sermon at Spokane's Central Methodist Episcopal Church in 1909 about the newly recognized Mother's Day, Dodd felt strongly that fatherhood needed recognition, as well.  She wanted a celebration that honored fathers like her own father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran who was left to raise his family alone when his wife died giving birth to their sixth child when Sonora was 16 years old.

The following year with the assistance of Reverend Dr. Conrad Bluhm, her pastor at Old Centenary Presbyterian Church (now Knox Presbyterian Church), Sonora took the idea to the Spokane YMCA. The Spokane YMCA, along with the Ministerial Alliance, endorsed Dodd’s idea and helped it spread by celebrating the first Father’s Day in 1910. Sonora suggested her father’s birthday, June 5th, be established as the day to honor all Father’s. However, the pastors wanted more time to prepare, so on June 19, 1910, young members of the YMCA went to church wearing roses: a red rose to honor a living father, and a white rose to honor a deceased one.  Dodd traveled through the city in a horse-drawn carriage, carrying gifts to shut-in fathers.

It took many years to make the holiday official. In spite of support from the YWCA, the YMCA, and churches, Father's Day ran the risk of disappearing from the calendar.  Where Mother's Day was met with enthusiasm, Father's Day was often met with laughter.  The holiday was gathering attention slowly, but for the wrong reasons. It was the target of much satire, parody and derision, including jokes from the local newspaper.  Many people saw it as the first step in filling the calendar with mindless promotions^.

A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913.  In 1916, President Woodwrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak in a Father's Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized.  US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress.  In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents"  In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day.  Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972. 

So tomorrow, we'll celebrate the Fathers in our family.  My 87 year old Father will be there, my 57 year old Husband will be there and my 28 year old Son will be there.  All 3 at different stages of "fatherhood", but the common factor is that they're all loved, respected and deserve to be recognized on this special day.

Jeri Pischke, Tender Heart Transitions – Email – Website