Father’s Day begins like Mother’s Day, although there are conflicting stories as to who actually created Father’s Day. The first known Father’s Day celebration took place in West Virginia in July 1908 and was organized by Grace Clayton. While mourning the loss of her father, a terrible mining disaster occurred, killing 361 men, 250 of them fathers. She proposed a celebration to commemorate the lives of parents who had lost their lives at her local church. She chose the Sunday closest to her own father’s birthday. Unfortunately, West Virginia did not recognize this holiday due to a lack of promotion and the celebration of Independence Day the night before. Due to this lack of promotion and the fact that the original sermon was not published in the newspaper, the celebration was forgotten and never held again.
Instead, credit for Father’s Day is widely given to Sonora Dodd. She began promoting the holiday for his father, who was a single father raising six children after his wife died in childbirth. She chose June for her father’s birthday, although she originally wanted the celebration to take place on June 5, she did not give the organizer enough time and the event was postponed to the third Sunday in June.
Although many presidents tried to make it a nationally recognized holiday, Congress went around the bill each time for fear of mass commercialization of this holiday. Presidents: Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, and Lyndon B. Johnson tried to nationalize this holiday. President Coolidge went so far as to suggest to the states that they observe Father’s Day at his expense, since Congress would not pass the bill. That was in 1927 and nothing more was said about the holiday nationally until in 1957, when Senator Margaret Chase accused Congress of honoring the mother while ignoring the fathers for 40 years, she insisted that they honor both parents. equally or did not honor any. While her letter had some impact, it wasn’t until 1972 with President Richard Nixon’s signature that the holiday was officially recognized 62 years after the first Father’s Day celebration took place.
The holiday, like Mother’s Day, has been embraced around the world, although the official date varies from country to country, it is still a day to honor fathers and father figures alike. It has now become the fifth largest card party. Mother’s Day is the biggest day for phone calls, but pretty fun. Father’s Day is the busiest day for collect calls in the US, but all phone calls on both holidays tend to be longer.