Every third Sunday in June, billions of people pause to celebrate the fathers, step-dads, grandfathers, and father figures in their lives. But unlike Mother's Day — which moved from grassroots campaign to national holiday in just six years — Father's Day took more than six decades to win official recognition. Here's the full story.
The Daughter Who Started It All
Father's Day was the idea of Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington. In 1909, while listening to a Mother's Day sermon at her church, she thought of her own father: William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran who had raised six children alone after his wife died in childbirth. She believed fathers deserved the same public recognition as mothers.
Dodd petitioned the Spokane Ministerial Alliance and the YMCA, requesting a day honouring fathers on her own father's birthday — 5 June. Logistical constraints pushed the first celebration to the third Sunday of June instead. On 19 June 1910, Spokane held what is widely recognised as the first Father's Day observance. Dodd wore a white rose — for a deceased father — and encouraged others to wear red roses for living ones.
Why It Took So Long
Mother's Day had a fierce, single-minded champion in Anna Jarvis. Father's Day had no such advocate for decades. Early on, the holiday was met with indifference and even mockery — many Americans saw it as a sentimental imitation. Congress repeatedly rejected bills to make it official, partly out of concern about further commercialisation of the calendar after the Mother's Day experience.
Dodd herself stepped away from the campaign for years, returning to university to study art. The holiday persisted informally in many U.S. states but lacked national standing.
Presidents, Commerce, and a Long Road to Recognition
The holiday gained momentum in fits and starts:
- 1916 — President Woodrow Wilson personally observed Father's Day in Spokane, though he did not officially proclaim it.
- 1924 — President Calvin Coolidge recommended states observe the day, but stopped short of a national proclamation.
- 1938 — The Father's Day Council was founded by New York retailer groups — the same commercial interests that had helped entrench Mother's Day. Gift-giving and greeting cards began to define the occasion.
- 1966 — President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day.
- 1972 — President Richard Nixon signed Father's Day into permanent law as a U.S. federal holiday — 62 years after Sonora Dodd first proposed it.
Father's Day Around the World
Unlike Mother's Day, which clusters around a handful of dates, Father's Day varies considerably by country:
- Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States — third Sunday in June, following the U.S. model.
- Germany — celebrated on Ascension Thursday (40 days after Easter), a tradition dating back centuries as Männertag or "Men's Day." It has little to do with fatherhood in the modern sense — it traditionally involved men going on all-day hikes with wagons of beer.
- Spain, Portugal, Italy — 19 March, the feast of Saint Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. This pre-dates the modern Father's Day movement by centuries.
- Brazil — second Sunday of August, introduced in 1953 by a São Paulo journalist inspired by the American holiday.
- Thailand — 5 December, the birthday of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who was revered as the father of the nation.
Sonora Dodd's Legacy
Sonora Smart Dodd lived to see her idea become federal law. She died in 1978 at the age of 96 — six years after Nixon signed the bill. Unlike Anna Jarvis, who turned bitterly against the commercialisation of Mother's Day, Dodd seemed to make peace with the greeting cards, neckties, and barbecue grills that came to define Father's Day. Her original white rose symbol has largely faded, but the sentiment she wanted to honour — a child's love and gratitude for a devoted father — endures in every card and phone call made on the third Sunday of June.
Celebrate Dad This Father's Day
A heartfelt, personalised card is still one of the most meaningful ways to tell your dad exactly what he means to you. Browse our free printable Father's Day cards — customise with your own message and photos, and print at home in minutes.