Dads. They have their own category of jokes, a body type and yes, just like Mom, they even get their very own holiday.
Father's Day is a national holiday in the United States, celebrated on the third Sunday of June every year. That means Father's Day falls on Sunday, June 21 this year, and if you haven't already picked out something nice for your pop, you better get on that.
Like most contemporary holidays, Father's Day is now a heavily commercial affair with companies using the occasion to hold special promotions and create advertisements that bring us to tears, ultimately in the hopes of making some money. Those efforts seem to be working as Americans are expected to spend $12.7 billion on gifts for their fathers for this year's holiday, according to the National Retail Federation's 2015 Father's Day Spending Survey.
However, Father's Day wasn't always about skin care products or children trying not to remember what tie they bought their dads last year so they don't give him the same one as a gift. Father's Day actually had much humbler origins, but it's always been about giving dads a day where they can be in the spotlight and get some thanks for all of the things that they do for us. Plus, since Mother's Day technically became a holiday first, it's not like you can just leave Dad out anyway, you know? It was only a matter of time before Father's Day would become a holiday too.
1. It May Have Started At A Church
Many credit the Central United Methodist Church in Fairmont, West Va. for holding the first Father's Day celebration on July 5, 1908. One of the congregants apparently thought of it as a way to follow the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother" and to honor the 360 men that died in a mining accident seven miles away from Fairmont in Monongah, West Va. the previous year.
2. One Dad In Particular Served As Inspiration
Though she may not have been the first person to come up with the idea for Father's Day, Sonora Dodd really helped the holiday take off. The Spokane, Wash. native came up with the idea in 1909 while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in church. She thought her father William Smart, a Civil War veteran and widower raising six children on his own, deserved to be honored with his very own day. Dodd wanted the celebration to be held in June because it was her father's birth month. The first Father's Day took place on June 17, 1910 with an official proclamation by the mayor of Spokane.
3. Father's Day Wasn't An Immediate Success
Unlike Mother's Day, which officially became a national holiday in 1914, it took a while for Father's Day to catch on. The holiday spread all over the country after the celebration in Spokane. However, many men were reluctant to participate in it. They "scoffed at the holiday's sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products—often paid," according to American Masculinities: A Historical Encyclopedia. The fact that child-rearing was seen as more of a feminine responsibility until the second half of the 20th century also stalled support for the holiday.
4. There Was A Movement To Scrap Father's Day Altogether
The U.S. isn't the only country that celebrates Father's Day. Brazilians celebrate Father's Day on the second Sunday of August in honor of Mary's father, St. Joachim. Russia's equivalent to Father's Day started out in Soviet times as a day to honor the military but then evolved into honoring all men known as Defender of the Fatherland Day. Thailand uses King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday on Dec. 5 to celebrate fathers everywhere.
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