Father’s Day: Sunday June 21. How did the tradition begin?

Father’s Day History

Father s Day is Sunday, June 21. Have you ever wondered how the day to honor Dads started?

 

In 1909, Mrs. John B. Dodd, of Spokane Washington, first proposed the idea of a “father’s day” when she wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. Mr. Smart was a Civil War veteran, who was widowed when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child. Despite obvious hardships, he proceeded to raise all his children alone on a rural farm in eastern Washington.

The first Father’s Day was observed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane Washington. At about the same time in various towns and cities across American other people were beginning to celebrate a “father’s day.” In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge expressed his support of the idea of a national Father’s Day.

The white or red rose is the official flower for Father’s Day. Mrs. Dodd suggested that people wear a white rose to honor a father who was deceased and a red rose for a father who was living.

In 1956, Father’s Day was officially recognized in the US by a Joint Resolution of Congress. A decade later, President, Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father’s Day and in 1972, President Richard Nixon finally established a permanent national observance of Father’s Day in the US to be held on the third Sunday of June.

Mrs. John B. Dodd

 

from Phoenix Flower Shops