The most significant date built into a Father’s Day celebration is June 19, 1910. This was the first ritualized Father’s Day recognized in the United States and later in Canada.
Don’t get me wrong. Dads have been recognized and appreciated ad infinitum. Feasts and celebrations of fatherhood within various branches of orthodox and European Catholic churches date back to the early 16th century. But the spiritual gatherings for dads lacked the universal appeal that was nurtured in 1910. Dad’s day has gone way beyond a celebration in the sanctuary.
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I think that a great many dads celebrate with barbecues or whatnot with their families, and as much in their backyards as anywhere else. It is a significant family time.
The idea for Father’s Day was initiated and promoted by Sonora Smart Dodd. She got the idea while sitting in a church on Mother’s Day and wondering why Father’s Day was not a moment of celebration as well. Her own family history perhaps bore the fruit for the tradition.
Sonora’s father was married twice. In both instances his wives died while giving birth to babies. He was left on his own, farming or trying to make money, and caring for six children running around the house.
There were no social assistance programs in those days. He was on his own, financially supporting his family and nurturing each of his children through their developmental journeys. The love he shared was obviously successful. Why else would his daughter fixate on the need for Father’s Day?
What I find interesting is that the drive for Father’s Day was based on a man who was clearly into nurturing his children.
It is a model that we find in today’s dad. Many of our fathers are more than custodians of televised Sunday afternoon football games, barbecued steak sandwiches or boisterous beer drinking parties Friday night after work.
They are nurturing and caring family members, committed to the well-being of their families and, just like Sonora Smart Dodd’s father, doing whatever possible to help their children carve out meaningful futures for themselves.
You can barbecue all the hamburgers you want, but it is that nurturing and caring that makes dads a star attraction in this, the 21st century, celebration of Father’s Day.
Jacklin Andrews is a family counsellor from Saskatchewan. Contact: jandrews@producer.com.
