Dads. They have their own category of jokes, a body type and yes, just like Mom, they even get their very own holiday.
Father's Day is a national holiday in the United States, celebrated on the third Sunday of June every year. That means Father's Day falls on Sunday, June 21 this year, and if you haven't already picked out something nice for your pop, you better get on that.
Like most contemporary holidays, Father's Day is now a heavily commercial affair with companies using the occasion to hold special promotions and create advertisements that bring us to tears, ultimately in the hopes of making some money. Those efforts seem to be working as Americans are expected to spend $12.7 billion on gifts for their fathers for this year's holiday, according to the National Retail Federation's 2015 Father's Day Spending Survey.
However, Father's Day wasn't always about skin care products or children trying not to remember what tie they bought their dads last year so they don't give him the same one as a gift. Father's Day actually had much humbler origins, but it's always been about giving dads a day where they can be in the spotlight and get some thanks for all of the things that they do for us. Plus, since Mother's Day technically became a holiday first, it's not like you can just leave Dad out anyway, you know? It was only a matter of time before Father's Day would become a holiday too.
1. It May Have Started At A Church
Many credit the Central United Methodist Church in Fairmont, West Va. for holding the first Father's Day celebration on July 5, 1908. One of the congregants apparently thought of it as a way to follow the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother" and to honor the 360 men that died in a mining accident seven miles away from Fairmont in Monongah, West Va. the previous year.
2. One Dad In Particular Served As Inspiration
Though she may not have been the first person to come up with the idea for Father's Day, Sonora Dodd really helped the holiday take off. The Spokane, Wash. native came up with the idea in 1909 while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in church. She thought her father William Smart, a Civil War veteran and widower raising six children on his own, deserved to be honored with his very own day. Dodd wanted the celebration to be held in June because it was her father's birth month. The first Father's Day took place on June 17, 1910 with an official proclamation by the mayor of Spokane.
3. Father's Day Wasn't An Immediate Success
Unlike Mother's Day, which officially became a national holiday in 1914, it took a while for Father's Day to catch on. The holiday spread all over the country after the celebration in Spokane. However, many men were reluctant to participate in it. They "scoffed at the holiday's sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products—often paid," according to American Masculinities: A Historical Encyclopedia. The fact that child-rearing was seen as more of a feminine responsibility until the second half of the 20th century also stalled support for the holiday.
4. There Was A Movement To Scrap Father's Day Altogether
In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a movement to get rid of Father's Day and Mother's Day and combine them into one holiday called Parents Day, according to American Masculinities. People would host counter-rallies during Mother's Day celebrations in New York's Central Park.
5. A Changing Society Saved Father's Day
Though Father's Day faced some backlash early on, several events in the 20th century helped grow support for the holiday. During the Great Depression, New York businesses took advantage of the holiday and dubbed it a "second Christmas" due to the time of the year it took place in order to hold special sales and hopefully attract more customers, according to American Masculinities. Business leaders formed the Father's Day Council in 1931 to promote the holiday. The fact that many fathers went off to fight in World War II and changing attitudes toward fatherhood beginning in the 1950s also grew support for Father's Day.
6. It's A Fairly Recent National Holiday
Though Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge both participated in Father's Day observances during their terms, it wasn't until 1966 when President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day, according to the United States Census Bureau. President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made Father's Day a permanent national holiday in 1972, which also just happened to be the day the news broke about a burglary in the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate complex. What an unhappy Father's Day for him.
7. How The World Celebrates Father's Day
The U.S. isn't the only country that celebrates Father's Day. Brazilians celebrate Father's Day on the second Sunday of August in honor of Mary's father, St. Joachim. Russia's equivalent to Father's Day started out in Soviet times as a day to honor the military but then evolved into honoring all men known as Defender of the Fatherland Day. Thailand uses King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday on Dec. 5 to celebrate fathers everywhere.
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