The history of Father’s Day: Origins of the day and how the annual summer occasion is celebrated

Father’s Day is an occasion to honor fathers. 

This is often done through gift giving, acts of kindness and taking the time to spend the day with your dad. 

Father’s Day is celebrated every year on the third Sunday in June.  

The day celebrating fathers has a long history and withstood some early controversy.

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Take a look at the history of Father’s Day and how you can celebrate this year. 

1. Why is Father’s Day celebrated?
2. Who created Father’s Day?
3. How can I celebrate Father’s Day?

1. Why is Father’s Day celebrated?

Father’s Day is a time to honor fatherhood and the role fathers have in the lives of their children. 

On the third Sunday in June, many take the opportunity to show the father figures in their lives appreciation for all that they do. 

Father’s Day falls just around a month after Mother’s Day. Of the two holidays, Mother’s Day was the first created.

2. Who created Father’s Day?

Mother’s Day predated Father’s Day. The occasion honoring mothers didn’t have the same controversy at the start as Father’s Day did. 

Anna Jarvis was the originator of Mother’s Day by hosting the holiday for the first time in 1907 at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, with a service that was dedicated to her mother who died two years earlier.

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Mother’s Day quickly gained traction, and, just a few years later, the holiday was being celebrated across the United States. 

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made the occasion an official holiday. 

The year 1908 was when a church in West Virginia hosted a sermon honoring 362 men killed the year before in a coal mining explosion. This was the earliest event in honor of fathers, but it was not an annual day of recognition, according to History.com. 

Sonora Smart Dodd of Washington created Father’s Day. In 1910, she started spreading the word of the holiday she believed should be created with the thought that, like mothers, fathers should be honored. 

Her father was a widower and Civil War veteran. His daughter strongly believed that fatherhood should be celebrated and recognized. 

There was controversy surrounding the holiday. 

Her idea started to gain traction, and the first official Father’s Day was recognized in Washington on June 19, 1910, according to History.com. 

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Even though word of the occasion did start to spread, there was controversy surrounding the holiday. 

There were a couple of reasons why Father’s Day was controversial during the early years. For one, many men thought that day was purely a commercial holiday.

Many men “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products — often paid for by the father himself,” a historian wrote of the day, according to History.com.

There was a movement through the 1920s and 1930s to celebrate a single holiday for parents rather than breaking it up into two, according to History.com. 

That idea did not succeed, and Mother’s Day and Father’s Day continued to be celebrated on separate days. 

It wasn’t until 1972 that President Nixon officially declared the third Sunday in June Father’s Day. 

3. How can I celebrate Father’s Day?

During the day, fathers often receive gifts from children. 

In 2024, it’s expected that total spending for the occasion will reach $22.4 billion, according to the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. 

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The source notes that half of consumers plan on buying a gift for their father or stepfather, while 26% plan on purchasing for a husband, 10% for a son, 8% for a brother, 8% for a friend and 6% for a grandfather.