Father's Day History...

The ancient origins of Father’s Day began in Babylonian when a youth named Elmesu carved the first known Father's Day card in clay nearly 4,000 years ago. His special message wished his father good health and a long life.

The origins of Father’s Day as we celebrate it in the United States are the work of Sonora Louise Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington. In 1909, she first proposed the idea of a "father's day" when she wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart.

Mr. Smart was a Civil War veteran, who was widowed when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child. Despite obvious hardships, he proceeded to raise all his children alone on a rural farm in eastern Washington. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man.

Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on June 19, 1910.

In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge expressed his support of the idea of a national Father's Day. The holiday was officially recognized in the US by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. A decade later, President, Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day and in 1972, President Richard Nixon finally established a permanent national observance of Father's Day in the US to be held on the third Sunday of June.

The white or red rose is the official flower for Father's Day. Mrs. Dodd suggested that people wear a white rose to honor a father who was deceased and a red rose for a father who was living.

Today, Father's Day is celebrated in many parts of the world. In the United States, Canada and several countries in Asia, Father's Day is the third Sunday in June. In Spain and Belgium, Father's Day falls on March 19th while Sweden celebrates the holiday in November, and in New Zealand, on the first Sunday of September.