In this post we will be looking at History of Father’s Day, what date is Father’s Day celebrated in Nigeria and Who started the tradition of celebrating Father’s Day.
INTRODUCTION
Father’s Day is a holiday of honoring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society. In Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on 19 March as Saint Joseph’s Day since the Middle Ages. In the United States, Father’s Day was founded by Sonora Smart and celebrated on the third Sunday of June for the first time in 1910. The day is held on various dates across the world, and different regions maintain their own traditions of honoring fatherhood. Father’s Day is a recognized public holiday in Lithuania and some parts of Spain and was regarded as such in Italy until 1977. It is a national holiday in Estonia, Samoa, and equivalently in South Korea, where it is celebrated as Parents’ Day. The holiday complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Mother’s Day, Siblings Day, and Grandparents’ Day. There are variations across the world on dates set aside for the celebration of Father’s Day but majority set aside and observe the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day. Father’s Day in Nigeria, like in many other parts of the world, is celebrated on the third Sunday of June.
HISTORY OF FATHER’S DAY
While a time to honor and celebrate fathers, Father’s Day was inspired by tragedy. In December 1907, the Monongah mining disaster killed 361 miners, with 250 of these men being fathers. Grace Golden Clayton was one of the people who lost their fathers due to the mining disaster, and she suggested to her minister that a special service be held to honor the fathers who were lost in this tragedy. This first Father’s Day in Fairmont, unfortunately, did not lead to the holiday’s celebration nationwide. The two main reasons that Father’s Day failed to gain popularity at this point were because the event was not advertised outside of Fairmont, and the celebration took place only a day after the town’s Independence Day festivities. In 1909 Sonora Smart Dodd, who along with her five brothers was raised by her father alone, after attending Mother’s Day in a church, convinced the Spokane Ministerial Association to celebrate Father’s Day worldwide. In addition to Father’s Day, International Men’s Day is celebrated in many countries on 19 November in honor of both men and boys. In 1909 when it was first proposed in Spokane, Washington who was raised by a widower. While listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at the Central Methodist Church, Sonora was inspired to create a day to recognize great fathers like her dad William Smart. William was a Civil War veteran who raised Sonora and her five brothers after his wife died during childbirth. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring father’s, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six (6) years later, Father’s Day became a national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1974 in the USA.
WHAT DATE IS FATHER’S DAY CELEBRATED IN NIGERIA.
Father’s Day is a holiday of honoring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society. In Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on 19 March as Saint Joseph’s Day since the Middle Ages. In the United States, Father’s Day was founded by Sonora Smart Dodd, and celebrated on the third Sunday of June for the first time in 1910. The day is held on various dates across the world, and different regions maintain their own traditions of honoring fatherhood. Father’s Day is a recognized public holiday in Lithuania and some parts of Spain and was regarded as such in Italy until 1977. It is a national holiday in Estonia, Samoa, and equivalently in South Korea, where it is celebrated as Parents’ Day. The holiday complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Mother’s Day, Siblings Day, and Grandparents’ Day. There are variations across the world on dates set aside for the celebration of Father’s Day but majority set aside and observe the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day. Father’s Day in Nigeria, like in many other parts of the world, is celebrated on the third Sunday of June.
WHO STARTED THE TRADITION OF CELEBRATING FATHER’S DAY.
The nation’s first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in the state of Washington. However, it was not until 1972—58 years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official—that the day honoring fathers became a nationwide holiday in the United States. Father’s Day 2022 will occur on Sunday, June 19. The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm–perhaps because, as one florist explained, “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.” On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers, a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah, but it was a one-time commemoration and not an annual holiday. The next year, a Spokane, Washington, woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. She went to local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials to drum up support for her idea, and she was successful: Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. Slowly, the holiday spread. In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to unfurl a flag in Spokane when he pressed a button in Washington, D.C. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge urged state governments to observe Father’s Day. Today, the day honoring fathers is celebrated in the United States on the third Sunday of June: Father’s Day 2021 occurs on June 20.
CONCLUTION.
Father’s Day, celebrated June 17 of every year, is the day when fathers worldwide are honored for their contribution to the upkeep of the nuclear family, and to honor fathers who are single parents. It is a day when the relevance of fatherhood and paternal bond of the man, known as the pillar of the family, is well appreciated.