welcome back to the ancestral findings podcast
father's day actually has roots going back to the early middle ages just after the fall of
the roman empire in europe churches celebrated a version but it took until the 1970s for it to
become a nationally recognized holiday in the united states here is the story of father's day
father's day hasn't been celebrated in america for as long as mother's day has
but it is no less important to us now indeed it has become a treasured american holiday
however father's day is not only an american holiday its roots go back much longer than you
might imagine while it took until the nixon administration for father's day to become an
accepted holiday in the united states its foundations are in the middle ages
here is what you need to know about the history of father's day a primitive early version of father's
day was being celebrated in the catholic nations of europe since medieval times it was called saint
joseph's day and was celebrated each year on march 19th it commemorated joseph the husband of mary
and how he raised jesus as his own joseph was held up to be the ideal example of earthly fatherhood
other fathers were to reflect on his example and emulate it with all children under their care
biological or otherwise the orthodox christian church in the eastern part of europe designated
the second sunday before the nativity as the sunday of the forefathers this holiday celebrated
jesus's male ancestors going all the way back to adam but with a particular emphasis on abraham
who was the patriarch of the jewish faith and by extension the christian church god said to abraham
in thy seed shall all of the nations on the earth be blessed genesis 12 3 22 18
this holiday celebrates all of the fathers of the bible in jesus's earthly family line and also
shows the contemporary fathers how they should be the official celebration of saint joseph's day
goes back to at least 1508 in the catholic nations of europe celebrating fatherhood of all kinds on
saint joseph's day which was an unofficial holiday for a few centuries before being made a legitimate
religious holiday was being encouraged by catholic church leaders going back to the late 1300s or
early 1400s the franciscans are understood to be the first supporters of this kind of celebration
the celebration was brought to north america central america and south america by portuguese
and spanish explorers and settlers of course the catholic church does not have a monopoly
on celebrating fatherhood the earlier coptic orthodox church was celebrating fatherhood
on saint joseph's day on july 20th each year as far back as the 400 ads there is an international
men's day that many countries around the world celebrate on november 19th each year
this holiday celebrates all men and boys including fathers so even in countries without an official
father's day there is an informal one with this internationally celebrated holiday
the roman catholic church still celebrates their father's day on saint joseph's day today
and they sometimes include their spiritual father usually their parish priest in the celebration
this depends on each individual church but it is a common practice while father's day seems to
have been celebrated in europe for centuries its acceptance in the united states was not as easy as
one might have imagined outside of people in the catholic church there was no official father's day
celebrated in the united states until the early 20th century the first father's day celebration
in the united states was celebrated in fairmont west virginia on july 5th 1908 at the williams
memorial methodist episcopal church south which is now called the central united methodist church
the celebration was initiated by a woman named grace golden clayton who was mourning
the loss of her father in a december 1907 mining accident in fact 361 men 250 of whom were fathers
were killed in that accident which left thousands of children without fathers in the area
grace suggested the father's day celebration to her pastor at the church to honor all the fathers
lost in that accident and he agreed to it grace's celebration was not celebrated outside of fairmont
in fact the sermon preached at the celebration was not even published which was unusual for the time
grace was also a quiet woman who did not promote another father's day or
talk to other people about it it seems like one celebration was enough for her
other attempts at establishing a national father's day were made around the country over
the next several years usually by women wishing to honor their own fathers but they were soundly
turned down the number of people suggesting a national father's day over the next few
years led to many different people claiming that father's day in the united states was their idea
the acceptance of father's day in the united states finally happened in 1910 when a woman named
sonora smart dodd wanted to honor her father a civil war veteran named william jackson smart who
had raised six children on his own after the loss of his wife sonora lived in spokane washington
and convinced the pastor of her presbyterian church to give a father's day sermon
she wanted it to be on june 5th which was her father's birthday but her pastor did not have
enough time to prepare a sermon instead it was celebrated on june 19 1910 which was the third
sunday in june other pastors around the city also got on board with the idea and father's
day was celebrated city-wide in spokane that year the celebration faded into obscurity in the 1920s
while sonora was away studying at the art institute of chicago however she brought it
back to town in the 1930s and began working to raise awareness of father's day nationwide she
got manufacturers of things like ties pipes mugs and other traditional gifts for fathers on board
to help her promote it as this would economically benefit them the holiday began being celebrated in
many places nationwide by 1938 but it was resisted by americans for a long time because they viewed
it as merely a commercial scheme to reproduce the success of the previously established mother's day
men's retailers continued to promote the holiday with the help of the newly established
father's day council in new york and they even incorporated some of the ridicule of the holiday
into their advertisements attempts to make father's day a nationally recognized holiday
continued for decades but congress did not like the commercial connotations of it
presidents woodrow wilson and calvin coolidge tried without success to establish
a national father's day holiday eventually president lyndon b johnson issued the first
official father's day proclamation in the united states making it the third sunday in june in 1972
president richard nixon signed a bill into law finally making father's day a nationally
recognized holiday thanks for listening and subscribing to the ancestral findings podcast
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