| Just as the saying goes that behind
every great man there is a great woman, the
inspiration behind the celebration of a Father's Day
is owed at least partly to its slightly earlier
counterpart, Mother's Day. Mother's Day was just
beginning to gather widespread attention in the
United States in 1909, when Sonora Louise Smart
Dodd, of Spokane, Washington, heard a sermon on the
merits of setting aside a day to honor one's mother.
It gave her the idea to petition for a day to honor
fathers, and in particular, her own father, William
Jackson Smart, who had raised her and her five
siblings by himself, after her mother died in
childbirth.
With support from the Spokane Ministerial
Association and the YMCA, her efforts paid off, and
on June 19, 1910, the first Father's Day was
celebrated in Spokane. The rose was selected as the
official Father's Day flower, and some suggest that
people wear a white rose to honor a father who is
deceased, and a red one for a father who is living.
In 1972, Richard Nixon signed a presidential
proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as
Father's Day.
Today, Father's Day is another day for greeting
card companies to rejoice, and sales of the most
popular gifts for Dad (shirts, ties, and electric
razors) increase considerably. Perhaps most telling
of Dad's perpetual role in the eyes of their
children, though, is the fact that more collect
calls are recorded on Father's Day then on any other
day of the year!
This article is from
http://www.biography.com |
