The Origin of Father's Day

Fathers Day has been adopted here in the UK from an American custom.

Whilst several people and places are cited as having the idea of a celebration of Fathers independently, there is one story which appears to have had the largest impact on the date becoming officially recognised and that is the story of Sonora Louise Smart Dodd .

The idea came to Sonora Smart as she was listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909 in her home town of Spokane, Washington.

Her mother had died some years earlier whilst giving birth to her sixth child so this left her father, William Jackson Smart, to raise Sonora and her five siblings alone as well as look after the farm on which they lived.

As Sonora grew older, she became aware of the difficulties her father must have faced during this time and decided that she wanted a special day to tell her father how special he was.

Sonora urged the Spokane Ministerial Association to sponsor the first Father's Day Celebration, which they did and it was held in Spokane on the third Sunday of June (June being the month of her father's birth) in 1910.

In 1926 the National Father's Day Committee was formed in New York City.

In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed the law, which finally made it a permanent fixture in the annual calendar.

Today, (and by apt coincidence maybe?) Father’s Day is held nine months before Mothers Day on the third Sunday in June.