Father's Day

Much of the material on this page is from Wikipedia's Father's Day page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day. As always, we recommend reading and researching on Wikipedia for our advanced students and for those students who are beyond TOEIC.

In the United States, Father's Day falls annually on the third Sunday in June.

Father's Day is a holiday that celebrates fathers and other influential males, such as uncles and grandfathers, in family life much like Mother's Day celebrates mothers and aunts and grandmothers. For Father's Day, gift giving to fathers and meal celebrations (such as a family brunch or dinner) are the main events of the day. Father's Day is celebrated in other parts of the world beyond the United States but those dates vary. 

In recent years in the United States, retailers have begun profiting from the holiday by promoting male-oriented gifts such as hardware, tools and golf paraphernalia. Father's Day sales revenues have increased as marketers have learned that they can sell much more for the holiday than the once traditional Father's Day gifts of neckties and barbeque tools.

The origins of Father's Day in the United States
Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd was the driving force behind the establishment of Father's Day celebrations in the United States. Mrs. Dodd's father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, had raised his six children as a single parent in Spokane, Washington. Inspired by Anna Jarvis's efforts to establish Mother's Day, Mrs. Dodd wanted to honor her father in a similar manner. Although Mrs. Dodd initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of her own father's death, as the date for celebration, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was instead deferred to the third Sunday in June. That first Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington.

Unofficial support for the new holiday, from such public figures as Congressman William Jennings Bryan, was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow Wilson's family observed Father's Day in 1916 and President Calvin Coolidge recommended Father's Day for national holiday status in 1924. However, President Coolidge was unsuccessful in his attempt because the all-male U.S. Congress was concerned that passing a measure so favorable to males could be seen as a conflict of interest. In 1966, Lyndon Johnson proclaimed Father's Day as a holiday to be celebrated annually on the third Sunday of June. Even so, the holiday was still not officially recognized until the presidency of Richard Nixon in 1972.

Trivia
More reverse charge (collect) calls are made on Father's Day than any other day of the year! (Source: The Book of Useless Information, page 240, published 2002.)