Father's Day

Discussion in 'Holidays & Traditions' started by Babs Hunt, Jun 16, 2018.

  1. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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  2. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    At the risk of angering someone, I have always viewed Mother's Day as being more of an invention intended to sell cards, flowers, and gifts, and that we have Father's Day because the men were feeling cheated. But then, I have never been big on holidays, aside from birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, and Easter. Pretty much every day of the week is dedicated to one issue or another these days, and now the pressure groups are claiming entire months, as in Gay Pride Month.

    I have trouble referring some of the days that we observe for special events or people as "holidays" however because "holiday" is a derivative of "holy day" and I just don't see anything holy about some of them.

    Father's Day was practiced in Europe as far back as the Middle Ages, although the date was March 19. It was brought to Latin America by the Spanish and Portuguese, still celebrated on March 19, however.

    It is celebrated on various days in different parts of the world, including days in March, April, and June.

    As for its celebration in the United States, I wasn't so far off though. It began to be celebrated here only in the 1900s, in order to complement Mother's Day. The first recorded observance of Father's Day was on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia, as an observance of the deaths of 361 men, 250 of them fathers, in the Monongah Mining Disaster the previous year.

    The event was not celebrated outside of the Williams Methodist Episcopal Church South in Fairmont. No proclamation was made by the city council. The church itself did not observe the event the following year.

    In 1911, there was a proposal for a Father's Day celebration in Chicago, but it was turned down.

    On June 19, 1910, the YMCA in Spokane, Washington observed a Father's Day celebration. It was proposed by Sonora Smart Dodd, whose father was a single parent raising six children there. She had proposed June 5 as the date, as that was her father's birthday, but that didn't leave enough time for planning. The Old Centenary Presbyterian Church, where she was a member, and other local clergies, accepted the idea, and sermons honoring fathers were presented throughout the city on June 19, 1910. However, Dodd was busy studying art in the 1920s, so she failed to promote it, and it faded into obscurity until Dodd returned to Spokane in the 1930s, again promoting the celebration, at which time it was raised to a national level, when the New York Associated Men's Wear Retailers and other merchant organizations began to promote the holiday.

    In 1912, there was a Father's Day celebration in Vancouver, Washington.

    Since neither of these events was promoted other than locally, Harry Meek, a Lion's Club member, believed that he had come up with the idea for Father's Day in 1915, when he proposed that it be celebrated on the third Sunday in June. Subsequently, Meeks and Lions Clubs International made several attempts to promote the holiday.

    In 1913, a bill was introduced in Congress and, in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson spoke at the Father's Day celebration in Spokane. He wanted to make it a federal holiday, but Congress feared that it would be too commercial. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge recommended that the day be observed throughout the country, but stopped short of a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts were defeated in Congress. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a Father's Day proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for forty years while honoring mother's. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Six years later, it was made permanent when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.
     
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  4. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    Very interesting to know how Father's Day came about @Ken Anderson. :)

    It is my opinion that if there is going to be an official Mother's Day...then there should be an official Father's Day as fathers are just as important to the raising and nurturing of their children as mothers are. I see nothing wrong with having a special day to honor and thank your parents for all they have done in raising their children. What I do see something wrong in is commercialism taking advantage of these special days to try and convince children they have to buy all kinds of extravagant presents for their parents on these Holidays. For me personally it is never the gift that I look forward too, but the gathering together of my children with me for precious time with each other. These days everyone's lives are so busy from sunup to sundown...that I look forward to anything that can make our getting together a priority. So I don't want to get rid of any Holiday, etc. that makes us stop and think "Let's gather together and enjoy each other." It's like in a way these special holidays gives young people "permission" to take time off to enjoy their families and that alone makes me glad that they have made official days of recognition for Father's and Mother's.

    The World has changed so much and it keeps our children so busy all the time that if it wasn't for Holidays...I don't think they would stop and get off the roller coaster for a short time.

    Besides although I'm sure God meant children to always honor their father's and mother's since it is one of His Ten Commandments...I see nothing wrong with having a holiday reminder each year of that for them. :)
     
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  5. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    I truly understand what Ken has said. As far as pushing young folks to buy stuff for Mother's Day and Father's Day, with the money young folks make today, compared to when we all were young, they have no problem buying this stuff and if they chose to...…..

    Plenty of parents chose to buy a brand new car or truck for their daughter or son who graduated out of high school or college. There are those parents who put on extravagant wedding/reception for their kids and then give them the money for a glamourous honeymoon.

    Since both of our parents are now deceased, we don't celebrate Mother's Day or Father's Day, but it was nice when my MIL was still alive. Wife and I would treat her to a nice breakfast buffet at a nice restaurant.

    As far as the other holidays go, still celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter...……..but, without all the candy. Oh, can't forget dressing up for Halloween. We celebrate Veteran's Day. My wife takes me out for a free Veteran's Day dinner.
     
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  6. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    There are many people that did not have a father growing up...or even if they did that father was not loving and nurturing (and the same can be said for some mothers). I would think those who have experienced this would find they don't want to celebrate Father's Day/Mother's Day...or even have anything to do with being reminded of the wounds and pain they suffered.

    I hope for those people there was a "father" or "mother" figure in your life that helped ease some of that pain and helped bring healing balm to your wounds. I'm truly sorry for everyone who experienced pain and wounds from their parents....or who lost their parents through death, etc. I pray that you will be healed from all your pain, wounds, and sorrow.
     
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  7. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Oh so very true.
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    In Australia, apparently there is a campaign to rename Father's Day to Special Person's Day, so that children without fathers didn't feel left out. -- WGME
     
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  9. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    Why don't they just make a national Special's Person's Day and rename Father's Day? The next thing you know they will rename Mother's Day too.

    It doesn't seem to right to rename something that does have meaning for other people, it would be better to to just add a national Special Person's Day so everyone can be happy.
     
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  10. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    I know Father's Day has long past. Still I am enjoying the benefits. My son gave me a bouquet of roses on Father's Day. After a day or two my wife put them in three different vases.
    Here's one of them. image.png

    My wife also bought four large tenderloin steaks for my son and DIL and us for a Father's Day meal. My son and grandson have quit eating meat. My son recently, my grandson for a year or so now. My daughter in law wanted Indian food so it was agreed each would eat their own meal and we would go out later for a coffee and desserts. That we did. My wife and I shared a tenderloin at home, our kids had Indian food at their place. Afterwards, when it was convenient we went to a new coffee house and polish off Father's Day.

    IMG_4336.JPG
    The point is, we had three tenderlion left over. Today, I had another for a late lunch. Two and a half inches high, almost three inches in diameter, so tender a knife is hardly necessary. I only ate half of that rascal but it was some of that good (mama mia). Made better no doubt by the oven baked fries, boiled okra, and pasta with home made pasta sauce, and a good bread, iced tea and water. Home made banana nut muffin for desert. It was a lunch - dinner combination. And there's two more in the freezer
     
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  11. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    That tenderloin sounds delicious @Bill Boggs . The roses are beautiful.
     
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