Fathers Day and it's Origin

The third Sunday in June is celebrated as the father's day. This day commemorates all the men who are great dads and also those men who play a father like role for other people. The non traditional family structure is the norm of the day and hence in this light all father figures be it an elder brother or a brother in-law etc are celebrated on this day. The first Father's Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington, in June 1910 through the efforts of a woman Sonora Dodd in United States who felt that just like the mothers the fathers too played important roles in the lives of their children.

The inspiration for her was her own father who after their mother's death had raised her and her five siblings with great love and care. Owing to her father being born in June she encouraged the celebrations in that month. Her efforts had begun in 1909 but it was not until 1972, that Father's day became an official holiday in the United States. It was President Nixon who with the help of a proclamation declared the third Sunday in June as Father's Day and an official holiday.

There were however not the great celebrations that are held today on Father's day in the yester years. It was a solemn church service in which the fathers were honored for the contribution that they made to the lives of their children and the whole day was solemn and respectful occasion. The red rose was a symbol of honoring a living father and a white one for a father who had passed away. In 1924, a Pennsylvanian bible class opted for a more unusual flower: the dandelion as the flower for father's day. This was because of the specialty of this flower that the more it was trampled upon the more it grew.

The fathers too feel special and honored and it arouses in them a sense of duty and compassion for their children even greater than what they already have. It is of course the job of the parents to raise their children but if their efforts are honored and the children show their respect and gratitude then their heart is definitely gladdened.

However some people feel that occasion such as father's day and mother's days are earmarks of a progressive era and are trumped up occasions. No one force sentiments or celebrations so it can be well left to them.

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