History of Father's Day

 SPECIAL

History of Father's Day

It would be interesting to know how Father's Day came into practice and celebrated worldwide with an equal sincerity and respect as any other significant holidays. Here's a short history on the holiday, and meaning of the different colors of roses to be worn that Day. You may even refer the page to others to share the information by clicking on the link given below.

About 4,000 years ago a young boy named Elmusu wished his Babylonian father good health and a long life by carving a Father's Day message on a card made out of clay. No one knows what happened to Elmesu or his father, but the tradition of having a special day honoring fathers has continued through the years in countries across the world.

The Countries, where the Catholic Church were of significant influence on the culture of the society, Father's Day is celebrated on St. Joseph's Day (March 19). However, a more secular celebration which is not associated with any religion is followed in recent times to highlight the increased diversity among people from all over the globe coexisting together in one place.

 

Father's Day is celebrated popularly on 3rd Sunday in June in many parts of the world. The idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Having been raised by her father, Henry Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. President Nixon, in 1972, established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June. So Father's Day was born as a token of love and gratitude that a daughter cherishes for her beloved father. Roses are the Father's Day flowers: red to be worn for a living father and white if the father has died. 

Quotes about Dad

"A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again." -- Enid Bagnold

 

"It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all." -- Alice Walker

 

"None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of SUCH a Father who has not his equal in this world-so great, so good, so faultless. Try, all of you, to follow in his footsteps and don't be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure, will ever be. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal." -- Victoria, Queen of England

 

"That is the thankless position of the father in the family-the provider for all, and the enemy of all." -- J. August Strindberg

 

"It is a wise father that knows his own child." -- William Shakespeare

 

"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was." -- Anne Sexton

"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters." -- English Proverb

 

"To be a successful father . . . there's one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don't look at it for the first two years." -- Ernest Hemingway

 

"A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father." -- Gabriel García Márquez

 

"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud

 

"I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example." -- Mario Cuomo

 

"Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young,
Who loved thee so fondly as he?
He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue,
And joined in thy innocent glee."
-- Margaret Courtney

 

"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right." -- Bill Cosby

 

"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!" -- Lydia M. Child

 

Father's Day poses as just the perfect occasion to express feelings of gratitude and thankfulness to every dad in the world. Though the day is celebrated with utmost fervor and enthusiasm in the present times, things were not the same. Father's Day celebration had a modest beginning. The history of Father's Day dates back to 1909, in Spokane, Washington. Sonora Smart Dodd was listening to a Mother's Day sermon, at the Central Methodist Episcopal Church. The lecture inspired her to have a special day dedicated to her father, William Jackson Smart, who had brought her up and her siblings, single-handedly, after their mother died.

Sonora could realize the greatness of her father and wanted to let him know how deeply she was touched by his sacrifices, courage, selflessness and love. To pay a tribute to her great dad, Sonora held the first Father's Day celebration on 19th of June 1910, on the birthday of her father. She was the first to solicit the idea of having an official Father's Day observance. However, unlike Mother's Day, which was readily accepted, Father's Day was received with mockery and hilarity. Though the day was gaining attention, it was mostly for the wrong reasons. Jokes, satire, parody and derision were all that the day was commemorated for.

In 1913, a bill in accordance with making the day official was introduced.  The idea was approved by US President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Later, in 1924, the idea gained further momentum as it was supported by President Calvin Coolidge. In 1926, a National Father's Day Committee was formed in New York City. However, it was thirty years later that a Joint Resolution of Congress gave recognition to Father's Day. Another 16 years passed before President Richard Nixon established the third Sunday of June, as a permanent national observance day of Father's Day in 1972.

The day was primarily nationalized in the honor of all good fathers, who contribute as much to the family as a mother, in their own ways. Another theory states that even before Dodd came into the picture, Dr. Robert Webb of West Virginia is believed to have conducted the first Father's Day service in 1908 at the Central Church of Fairmont. However, it was the colossal efforts of Dodd, which made it possible for the day to acquire national recognition. The white and red rose was made the official flowers for Father's Day celebration. While the white rose commemorated gratitude for a father, who was deceased, a red rose expressed thankfulness to one, who was living.

 Father in Different Languages

After mother, 'father' is the word that almost all the kids learn to speak. It gives a man immense pleasure to be called 'dad', 'daddy', 'baba', 'papa' or even 'abbu' by his child. In fact, he eagerly waits for the moment in his life. Have you ever wondered how other children across the globe call out to their father? Do they also call him 'dad' or address him with some other term. In order to satisfy your curiosity, we have listed the terms used in almost all the major languages of the world, for the word father. Go through the following list and know how to say father in different languages.

Saying Dad In Different Languages

Language	Father
Afrikaans	Vader
Bangla	Baba or Abba
Basque	Aita
Bolognese	Peder
Brazilian Portuguese	Pai
Breton	Tad
Chinese	Ba (Baa)
Cree (Canada)	Papa
Croatian	Otac
Czech	Tata, Otec
Dakota (USA)	Ate
Dutch	Vader, Papa or Pappie
East African	Baba
English	Father, Dad, Daddy, Pop, Poppa or Papa
Filipino	Tatay, Itay, Tay or Ama
French	Papa
Galician	Pai
German	Banketi or Papi
Hebrew	Abba (h)
Hindi	Papa or Pita-ji
Hungarian	Apa, Apu, Papa or Edesapa
Icelandic	Pabbi or Faoir
Indonesian	Bapa, Ayah or Pak
Irish	Athair or Daidí
Italian	Babbo
Japanese	Otosan or Papa
Judeo	Spanish, Padre, Baba or Babu
Kikuyu	Baba
Kiswahili	Baba
Ladin	Pere
Latin	Pater, Papa or Atta
Luo (Kenya)	Baba
Malay	Bapa
Maltese	Missier
Modern Greek	Babbas
Nahuatl (Mexico)	Ta
Nepali	Buwa
Norwegian	Pappa or Far
Persian/Farsi	Pedar, Pitar or Baabaa
Polish	Tata or Ojciec
Portuguese	Pai
Quechua	Tata or Churiyaqe
Romanian	Tata, Parinte or Taica
Russian	Papa
Sanskrit	Tatah or Janak
Sicilian	Patri
Slovak	Otec
Spanish	Papa, Viejo or Tata
Swedish	Pappa
Swiss German	Vatter
Turkish	Baba
Urdu	Abbu, Abbu-ji, Abbu-jaan
Venetian	Pare, Popa, 'Opa, Pupa or Papa
Welsh	Tad