Father’s Day 2021 Trivia | 47 facts about the celebration

Father’s Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society.

So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about this celebration.

In Catholic Europe, it has been celebrated on March 19 (St. Joseph’s Day) since the Middle Ages
This celebration was brought by the Spanish and Portuguese to Latin America
There, March 19 is often still used to celebrate this day
In many countries in Europe and the Americas have adopted the U.S. date
The day in the U.S. is the third Sunday of June
It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world
Most commonly in the months of March or May
It complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Mother’s Day, Siblings Day and Grandparents Day
A customary day for the celebration of fatherhood in Catholic Europe is known to date back to at least the Middle Ages
It is observed on 19 March, as the feast day of Saint Joseph, who is referred to as the fatherly Nutritor Domini (“Nourisher of the Lord”) in Catholicism and “the putative father of Jesus” in southern European tradition
This celebration was brought to the Americans by the Spanish and Portuguese, and in Latin America, Father’s Day is still celebrated on 19 March
The Catholic church actively supported the custom of a celebration of fatherhood on St. Joseph’s day from either the last years of the 14th century or from the early 15th century, apparently on the initiative of the Franciscans
In the Coptic Church, the celebration of fatherhood is also observed on St Joseph’s Day, but the Copts observe this celebration on July 20
This Coptic celebration may date back to the fifth century
Father’s Day was not celebrated in the US, outside Catholic traditions, until the 20th century
As a civic celebration in the US, it was inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother’s Day by celebrating fathers and male parenting
After Anna Jarvis’ successful promotion of Mother’s Day in Grafton, West Virginia, the first observance of a “Father’s Day” was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia, in the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church
Grace Golden Clayton was mourning the loss of her father, when in December 1907, the Monongah Mining Disaster in nearby Monongah killed 361 men, 250 of them fathers, leaving around a thousand fatherless children
Clayton suggested that her pastor Robert Thomas Webb honor all those fathers
Clayton’s event did not have repercussions outside Fairmont for several reasons, among them: the city was overwhelmed by other events, the celebration was never promoted outside the town itself and no proclamation of it was made by the city council
Finally, Clayton was a quiet person, who never promoted the event and never talked to other persons about it
In 1911, Jane Addams proposed that a citywide Father’s Day celebration be held in Chicago, but she was turned down
In 1912, there was a Father’s Day celebration in Vancouver, Washington, suggested by Methodist pastor J. J. Berringer of the Irvington Methodist Church
They mistakenly believed that they had been the first to celebrate such a day
They followed a 1911 suggestion by the Portland Oregonian
Harry C. Meek, a member of Lions Clubs International, claimed that he had first come up with the idea for Father’s Day in 1915
On June 19, 1910, a Father’s Day celebration was held at the YMCA in Spokane, Washington by Sonora Smart Dodd
Several local clergymen accepted the idea, and on June 19, 1910, the first Father’s Day, “sermons honoring fathers were presented throughout the city”
However, in the 1920s, Dodd stopped promoting the celebration because she was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, and it faded into relative obscurity, even in Spokane
In the 1930s, Dodd returned to Spokane and started promoting the celebration again, raising awareness at a national level
She had the help of those trade groups that would benefit most from the holiday, for example the manufacturers of ties, tobacco pipes, and any traditional present for fathers
By 1938, she had the help of the Father’s Day Council, founded by the New York Associated Men’s Wear Retailers to consolidate and systematize the holiday’s commercial promotion
By the mid-1980s, the Father’s Day Council wrote” has become a Second Christmas for all the men’s gift-oriented industries”
A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak at a Father’s Day celebration and he wanted to make it an officially recognized federal holiday
But Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized
In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day
Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972
In the United Kingdom, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June
The day does not have a long tradition
Steve Roud, in The English Year (2006), states that it entered British popular culture “sometime after the Second World War, not without opposition”
In Canada, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday
Father’s Day typically involves spending time with one’s father or the father figures in one’s life
Small family gatherings and the giving of gifts may be part of the festivities organized for Father’s Day
In the US, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June
Typically, families gather to celebrate the father figures in their lives
In recent years, retailers have adapted to the holiday by promoting greeting cards and gifts such as electronics and tools
Schools (if in session) and other children’s programs commonly have activities to make Father’s Day gifts