When and Why Father’s Day

When and Why Father’s Day

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.

Father's Day as an annual commemoration was founded in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA. Sonora Smart Dodd, who was born in Arkansas. She organized the  first celebration on June 19, 1910 with the help of local churches and the YMCA. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a widower and single parent who raised his six children there.

In countries of Europe, the Catholics observe the celebration of Saint Joseph’s Day honoring fathers on March 19. This practices dates back to the Middle Ages but is not a part of the holiday in the United States.

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