My Father: Photo by PR Mace

            On the third Sunday in June, Father’s across the nation will be honored by their children with cards, gifts, special dinners and sometimes flowers.

            But why do we honor our fathers with a special day? What is the origin of Father’s Day?

            Historically the first Father’s Day can be traced back 4,000 years to a young Babylonian boy named Elmusu. He wanted to wish his father good health and a long life and carved a Father’s Day message on a clay card. After that there is no further record of Elmusu or his father.

            The only other known history of a celebration to honor fathers was found in the culture of early Rome. Each February all deceased fathers were honored.

            While listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in a church in Spokane, Washington in 1910, Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd wondered why fathers were not honored in the same way as mothers.

            Mrs. Dodd had been raised by her father, William Smart, who was a Civil War veteran. Widowed when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child, he had raised the newborn and his five other children on his own.

            As an adult Sonora realized the love and selflessness her father had shown as a single parent. He had made many parental sacrifices while raising his family and working their rural farm in eastern Washington State. In her eyes he was a dedicated, courageous, selfless and loving man. She wished to honor him in the same way mothers where.

            She spoke with her minister and other church members about a day to honor all fathers. She wanted the celebration on June 5th, her father’s birthday. Because the date was so close at hand her minister asked for a few weeks to prepare a proper sermon. On June 19th, the third Sunday of the month, the first Father’s Day service was celebrated. Children were encouraged to make special desserts for their fathers or visit them if they lived apart.

             As was the tradition of giving carnations on Mother’s Day, Sonora wanted to give out roses for Father’s Day. A red rose to honor a living father and a while flower to honor a decreased father. Later the white lilac was chosen as the official Father’s Day Flower.

            Newspapers across the county that had highly endorsed Mother’s Day, carried stories about this unique Spokane observance for fathers.

            However, Father’s Day was not as quickly accepted as Mother’s Day. The members of an all-male Congress felt that a move to proclaim the day as an official holiday could be interpreted as a self-congratulatory pat on the back.

            In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson and his family personally observed the day. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge recommended all states if they wished should honor fathers on the third Sunday.

Image via Wikipedia : Calvin Coolidge

     While many people attempted to secure official recognition for Father’s Day the most notable effort was made by Senator Margaret Chase Smith in 1957. She forcefully wrote to Congress that we either honor both our parents, mother and father, or let us desist from honoring either one. But to single out just one of our two parents and omit the other was the most grievous insult imaginable.

Image by Wikipedia : Margaret Chase Smith

            Finally in 1972, sixty-two years after it was first proposed-Father’s Day was permanently established as a holiday by President Richard Nixon.

            So a token born out of the love and gratitude of a daughter for a cherished and beloved father has become what we now know as Father’s Day.