This weekend is Father’s Day, and having explored the history of Mothering Sunday, I felt it rude not to do the same for all the fantastic father’s who are out there.
So here it goes, a brief history lesson! So the very first recorded event of devoting a day to celebrating Father’s was back in 1908 in West Virginia, USA. A lady called Grace Clayton was mourning the death of her father and around the same time the “Monongah Mining disaster” happened, this disaster killed 361 men, leaving around a thousand children without a father. With all this grief being felt Grace suggested that these fathers should be honoured to the local pastor Robert Webb. They organised the celebration but unfortunately their original plans for the ceremony never went through, and no further celebration took place for many years.
The second attempt, took place in Washington, USA, when a lady called Sonora Smart Dodd heard about another lady called Anna Jarvis creating Mother’s Day. Sonora felt that Father’s should have a day to celebrate them as a parent as well. So she organised the event and arranged for the third Sunday in June, (this was give the pastors time to prepare the sermons), and on the 19th June 1910 the first Father’s Day celebration took place!
But soon after the celebration became popular in the 1920’s, Sonora started studying and without her promoting Father’s Day, people and retailers soon forgot about the idea. In the 1930’s Sonora started to push the celebration to make it a national awareness day. Sonora was a very clever woman, by pitching the idea to trade groups who would benefit financially from selling male related products, her idea was soon backed up by many companies, allowing them to sell products for the day.
Even though all of Grace’s and Sonora’s hard work eventually paid off, it wasn’t until 1966 when President Johnson made Father’s day official. He stated that Father’s day would take place on the third Sunday in June. And it was in 1972 when the day became recognised as a permanent national holiday when President Nixon signed it into the existing law. And that’s how Father’s Day become a national holiday; a day dedicated to all the amazing Father’s.
So if you’re like me and never know what to get your Father on that special day, get them a bottle of their favourite drink and a delicious bar from our flavoured chocolate range. I think they’d prefer that over a new tie.