Father's Day - Sunday 20th June

Mother's Day celebrations (bear with me and I’ll get onto Father’s Day in a moment) began way back in ancient Greece with the honoring of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. Much later, in the England of the 1600's, Mother’s got their very own Mothering Sunday, which was celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent, but us poor Dads had to wait for another three centuries before anyone recognised our contribution to harmonious family life (cue violins).

Quite surprisingly it wasn’t a man who invented Father’s Day, but a woman. In 1909 Sonora Smart Dodd, who had been raised by her father after the death of her mother during the birth of their sixth child, drew up a petition that recommended the introduction of a national Father’s Day celebration. She hoped to have the first of these special days on the first Sunday in June of 1910 because that was her Father’s birthday, but red tape (yes, they even had red tape back then – not that I’d know) held things up so it ended up being on the 19th June instead.

The first Father’s Day was only celebrated in Spokane, but the idea slowly spread. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge gave his official support to the idea (good for him) and then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation on the matter (good for him too) and this was ratified in 1972 by Richard Nixon who finally granted Sonora Smart Dodd’s wish and established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June … and the greeting card manufacturers have been celebrating ever since.

Happy listening my friends,