Page 39 - June 2022
P. 39

The USA gave the UK Father's Day to                    originally hoped to set the date as June 5th, her own
        be celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June                 father's  birthday.  He  was  a  Civil  War  veteran  who
        Mothering Sunday ( Mother's Day)  came from the Brits   raised  six  children  on  his  own  after  the  death  of  his
        The English  gave the world Mothering Sunday, which     wife during childbirth.
        morphed  into  Mother's  Day  in  the  United  States,  but    Washington  state  celebrated  its  first  Father's  Day  in
        Father's   Day  was  a  harder  sell.  Americans  warmed   June of 1910 and the idea slowly spread to other states,
        slowly  to   the  idea  of  a  day  honoring   fathers,  finally    although  it  has   never  gained  the  popularity  of
        setting  the  date  as  the   third  Sunday  in  June.   The   Mother's Day.
        British  followed suit before  an interesting path led  to
                                                                In  1930  there  was  actually   a  campaign  to  get  rid  of
        official recognition in the United States.
                                                                both days in favor of a single Parents' Day. That idea
        The first recorded mention of a Father's Day took place   got  no  traction.  During   World  War  II,  advertisers
        in  1908  at  a  church  in  West  Virginia.  There  a  pastor   used Father's  Day to promote the troops and the idea
        gave  a  special  sermon  honoring  fathers  after  362 men   was well on its way to national status.
        were killed in a local coal mining accident.
                                                                In  1972,  Richard  Nixon  declared  Father's  Day  a
        Church  members  passed  out  red  and  white  flowers  to   national  holiday,  signing  the  legislation  in  the  middle
        honor  the  living  and  to  mark  the  dead  in        of his re-election campaign for president.
        commemoration all that fathers do. This  was a one off,
                                                                The UK was already celebrating the day before it was
        however.  The   church  community  didn't  celebrate
        Father's  Day  again,  so  this  was  likely   more  a   official. The favorite  gift for father in the UK is a tie
                                                                and a card, which seems rather a yawner.
        commemoration  of  an  accident  than  an  attempt  at
        creating a holiday.                                     Of the two celebrations, Mother's Day continues to be
                                                                the  behemoth  event   in  the  number  of   cards,  gifts  ,
        In  1909,  a  woman  named  Sonora  Smart  Dodd,  upset
                                                                flowers, given,  and dinner reservations made. Make a
        that there was a Mother's Day but no Father's Day made
        it  her  mission  to  set  up  a  national  observance.  She   Father's Day splashy,  too.  Ditch the tie.














































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