HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADS

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

I thought I would take a moment or two to do some research about the day on which we celebrate fatherhood.

As far back as the Middle ages, the celebration in honor of fathers was observed on March 19, the feastday of Saint Joseph, Foster Father of the Lord Jesus.  This celebration was brought to the New World by the Spanish and the Portugese.  In Latin America as in South America, Father’s Day is still celebrated on March 19.

The history of Father’s Day in the United States is quite interesting indeed.  One might be surprised to discover that, as much as the celebration of fatherhood has been ingrained into the national (and commercial) culture, the day itself was not accorded the status of a national holiday until quite recently in the history of the country.

After Anna Jarvis' successful promotion of Mother's Day in Grafton, West Virginia, the first observance of a “primordial” celebration of fatherhood was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia, in the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church.  Grace Golden Clayton was mourning the loss of her father, when in December 1907, the Monongah Mining Disaster in nearby Monongah killed 361 men, 250 of them fathers, leaving around a thousand fatherless children. Clayton suggested that her pastor Robert Thomas Webb honor all those fathers who lost their lives in the tragedy.

Clayton's event did not have repercussions outside Fairmont for several reasons.  Two events overshadowed this event: the celebration of Independence Day July 4, 1908, with 12,000 attendants and several shows including a hot air balloon event, which took over the headlines in the following days, and the death of a 16-year-old girl on July 4. The local church and council were overwhelmed and they did not even think of promoting the event, and it was not celebrated again for many years. 

In 1911, Jane Addams proposed that a citywide Father's Day celebration be held in Chicago, but she was turned down. In 1912, there was a Father's Day celebration in Vancouver, Washington, suggested by Methodist pastor J. J. Berringer of the Irvington Methodist Church. 

Three years later, Harry C. Meek, a member of Lions Clubs International, claimed that he had first come up with the idea for Father's Day in 1915.  Meek said that the third Sunday in June was chosen because it was his birthday. The Lions Club has named him the "Originator of Father's Day". Meek made many efforts to promote Father's Day and make it an official holiday.

A bill to accord national recognition of Father’s Day was introduced in Congress in 1913.  In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak at a Father's Day celebration and he wanted to make it an officially recognized federal holiday, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized (perish the thought!).

In 1924,  President Calvin Coolidge recommended that the day be observed throughout the entire nation, but he stopped short at issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress.

More than a quarter of a century later, in 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a Father's Day proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "singling out just one of our two parents".  Still nothing officially happened.  

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day.  Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.

So, here we are this day honoring Dads throughout our country.  Prayers will be offered and families will gather (in a more moderate expression of affection that that according to Mom’s on their special day).  Gifts will be given (how many ties and bottles of aftershave) and toasts offered to the “old man”.  

And it is right and fitting that we should pause annually to recognize what I have always referred to as the “sacrament of fatherhood” proceeding as it does properly from the expression of conjugal love essential to the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony itself.  Fatherhood is sacred because Marriage is sacred and both should rightfully be accorded the respect and reverence they deserve.

I pray then that today will be something more than just another “Hallmark card” celebration.  May fathers be affirmed and recognized for the vocation of love and service which they so generously offer to the wives and children.

God bless you today and always, Dad!

In researching this post, I discovered that, in addition to Father's Day, International Men's Day is celebrated in many countries on November 19 in honor of men and boys who are not fathers.  

Just wait until Hallmark finds out about that day!