After Anna Jarvis successfully introduced Mother’s Day in the US in 1908, a woman named Sonora Dodd decided to take up the cause of fathers, to recognize her own father who had raised six children as a single parent. The first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington, on the third Sunday of June, 1910.
Unfortunately, Father’s Day was quickly forgotten until the 1930s when Sonora relaunched the day with the help of marketers of men’s wear and tobacco products. This caused people to be suspicious, thinking Father’s Day was just a way for marketers to duplicate the commercial success of Mother’s Day. As a result, Father’s Day wasn’t popular, and it wasn’t until 1972 that President Richard Nixon made it a permanent national holiday.
Father’s Day is celebrated in different ways around the world. In Australia, it’s the first Sunday of September, which is the first Sunday of spring in the southern hemisphere. In Germany, Vatertag is the Thursday, forty days after Easter. It’s a federal holiday and schools are often closed on the Friday so families can have a four-day long weekend. In Thailand, Father’s Day is celebrated on the king’s birthday (which is currently December 5th), while in Iran it marks the birthday of the first Imam of Shia Muslims.
