Father's Day Date

Father's Day is celebrated every month of every year! Not to say that it is a monthly event; different countries celebrate Father's Day in different months. However, most countries celebrate Father's Day on the third Sunday of June. There were events that led to Father's Day being declared as a permanent day in the year 1972 by US President Richard Nixon, to be celebrated every year. It all started in 1908 when Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton organized the first ever Father's Day in Fairmont, West Virginia. And it was the Monongah Mining Disaster, in which 210 men, also fathers, lost their lives because of which Mrs. Grace organized all of it on 5 July to honor them. However this event didn't register in the minds of people and soon it was forgotten. What happened next laid the foundation for Father's Day!

On 19 June 1910, Father's Day once was again celebrated, although for different reasons. The only thing was that it struck a chord. Sonora Smart Dodd, daughter of the single father William Jackson Smart, wanted to honor her father for his efforts in raising a family of six children without a mother, who unfortunately passed away while giving birth to her sixth child. In her relentless quest to win a day for her father and many across the nation, Sonora had to win support from her local ministerial association and the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA). It's because of the backing from the locals that people were able to relate to the day and it got registered in their minds. As of that day, and in the next years, though unofficially, the state of Washington celebrated Father's Day with much zest, made special dessert and visited their fathers if they lived apart.

There was initial hesitation and the idea took some time to be popularly accepted among the people; but when it did, it became a huge rage. Owing to the ever growing popularity of Father's Day, other states and organizations too got into action and started lobbying the Congress with a proposal to officially declare Father's Day as an annual day to pay tribute to the loving fathers of the nation. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson approved the idea and a few years later in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge also publicly supported the plans for a National Father's Day, just as there was a National Mother's Day. All the hype and hoopla surrounding the whole issue somehow fizzed out for the next few decades only to return and be declared as a permanent day to be celebrated on the third Sunday of every June. During 1966, it was President Lyndon, who proclaimed Father's Day to be a national holiday and President Richard Nixon, who signed for the permanent law and it was done.

Father's Day Date 2015: 21 June