Not everyone needs a special date and time to celebrate the most important people in their lives - Mother, Father, Sister Brother, Friends, Partners - so on and so forth. But it is fortunate that we have a designated day to celebrate these folks who bring so much joy into our lives. Father's Day is a time to celebrate the most important man in our lives. Father’s Day is celebrated annually on the third Sunday in June in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, and a number of other countries around the world. This year Father's day will be celebrated on 20th June.

History and Significance

While Mother's day has a particularly dark and significant origin story, Father's day doesn't precisely strike the same chord. According to History.Com On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church decided to honour fathers in a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah. This was supposed to be an isolated celebration meant to last only that day. 

However, a year later, a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd tried to establish a day dedicated to fathers, in light of Mother's day garnering such widespread adulation. She tried to run up as much support as possible in her initiative and was quite successful. The first statewide Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910.

The fervour didn't catch on as quickly as Mother's Day. President Woodrow Wilson and later Calvin Coolidge strived to make this an official holiday by urging citizens to observe it with the same enthusiasm as the adjacent parent. During the Great Depression, commercial outlets and retailers tried to capitalize on this day by selling neckties, shirts and hats in honour of Father's Day but the idea was short-lived. However, people were really not into it. Men scoffed at the sentimental notion of it all and it didn't catch on until President Nixon during a re-election campaign signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday in 1972.

This year Father's Day falls on summer solstice marking the beginnings of summer in the United States.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 01, 2021 04:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).