Father’s Day is celebrated every year on third Sunday of June month and this time, we are celebrating 100th anniversary of the occasion. However, the day was started at the time when a young woman named Sonora Smart Dodd wanted to give honor to her father.

Origin of Father’s Day

In the month of May in 1909, Spokane Washington based Sonora Smart Dodd sat in a church and was listening to a sermon of Mother’s Day. While hearing the sermon, she decided to designate a specific day to honor her father named William Jackson Smart. Reason for this is that Sonora Dodd and her siblings lost their mother during the childbirth of Sonora. During that time, William Smart, a veteran of Civil War singlehandedly took the responsibility for the growth of newborn Sonora and her siblings.

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Accordingly, Sonora wanted to celebrate the eve of Father’s Day on 5th of June i.e. on the birthday of her father. Thus, she petitioned for the same holiday to get recognition in the city. However, as arrangement of any festivity requires time, because of which the Mayor of Spokane postponed the date by 2weeks. In this way, the city of Washington celebrated Father’s Day for the first time on 19th of June in 1910.

During the Father’s Day celebration for the first time, many young women handed out red colored roses to their fathers or fatherly figures in a church service. In addition, a few of them passed many huge baskets filled fully with roses to encourage the attendees to pin a rose for honoring their fathers. Red colored flowers are for living ones and white roses are for paying tribute to the deceased. Later on, Sonora Dodd with her infant son went on a horse-driven carriage ride in the entire city for bringing gifts and roses to homebound fathers. Since then, the celebration of Father’s Day has consistently gained popularity not only in Washington, but also in other areas of the United States.

In the year 1924, Calvin Coolidge then president of the United States said that he supported the celebration of Father’s Day to setup close relationships between fathers/fatherly figures and their adorable kids, while simultaneously, to impress complete measure of obligations on fathers. Finally, the holiday of Father’s Day gained a huge traction in 1938 with the formation of the National Council i.e. a trade organization to promote Father’s Day by clothing retailers of men in the New York City. Finally, President Lyndon Johnson made the presidential proclamation for the first time to honor fathers in the year 1966 and then, President Richard Nixon made the day as a permanent holiday in 1972..

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