Father’s Day is a national holiday celebrated in America on the third Sunday of each year.
How Father’s Day Began
It all started in Spokane, Washington in 1909, with a citizen named Sonora Smart Dodd who felt that fathers should have the same recognition as mothers while she attended a Mother’s Day program at church. After the Mother’s Day church service, Sonora Dobb recognized her father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran who served as a single parent raising her and her five brothers by himself after his wife died giving birth to their youngest child. Therefore, she wanted a national holiday to honor her father and other men like him.
On Sunday, June 5, Sonora convinced the Spokane Ministerial Association (SMA) and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) to set aside the date to celebrate fathers. She wanted June 5 to be the day to honor all fathers because it was the birthdate of her father, but the SMA decided to set the date on the third Sunday of June because they wanted to have more time to prepare their sermons after Mother’s Day. When Spokane, Washington, celebrated the first Father’s Day, some events began: Sonora delivered presents to disabled fathers; Spokane ministers dedicated their sermons to fatherhood, and boys from the YMCA decorated their lapels with fresh-cut roses—red for living fathers, white for the deceased. The events and Sonora’s celebration were on the path to making Father’s Day a national holiday. However, it did not come immediately, maybe because of the parallels with Mother’s Day.
In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed a resolution in favor of Father’s Day so that fathers understand the proficiency of their obligations with fatherhood and so fathers and children establish more intimate relationships. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order to celebrate Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June. Finally, in 1972, Congress passed an act officially making Father’s Day a national holiday, and President Richard Nixon signed it into law. (This information came from www.almanac.com/forgotten-history-fathers-day). Since 1972, America has celebrated Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June each year. But if those who have fathers are a part of their everyday lives, should they honor their fathers every day instead of Father’s Day?
We Christians must remember to follow God’s commandment to honor our fathers daily, not just on Father’s Day, because God gave everybody a father as a gift to help our mothers beget life to us. We who have fathers who are devoted to us and a part of our everyday lives should cherish our fathers daily. Unfortunately, not all of us have a father living today, and people’s hearts should go out to the children grieving the loss of their father through death, just as fathers grieving the loss of their children through death on Father’s Day. Individuals, churches, and communities should also observe Father’s Day to reach out to comfort and pray for grieving children and fathers by having prayer meetings or support groups.
A PRAYER FOR FATHER’S DAY
Dear God, our Heavenly Father,
I lift the Father’s Day holiday to You in prayer as a tribute to all fathers and their children in the United States in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.
On Father’s Day, I pray that You will allow the holiday to be a ‘“Memorial Day for bereaved Fathers and Children” so grieving fathers and children can remember and cherish all the good times they had with them: fathers mourning the loss of their children and children for the loss of their fathers. I pray that You will give them peace and comfort as they grieve.
On Father’s Day, I pray that You will allow the holiday to be a “Day of Peace and Reconciliation for Fathers and Children” to reconcile estranged relationships between fathers and children by granting them the spirit to make peace by setting aside all differences and forgiving all grievances they have made against each other. I pray that You will bring a fresh start to their relationship by bridging love, harmony, and unity. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen —Kenneth Sullivan.