by Kristen Alliegro

Created on: June 11, 2008   Last Updated: June 17, 2008

The global origins of Fathers Day cannot be fully determined. One source cites the beginning of this celebratory event back to Babylon and states: "They have recorded that a young boy called Elmesu carved a Father's Day message on a card made out of clay nearly 4,000 years ago. Elmesu wished his Babylonian father good health and a long life. Though there is no record of what happened to Elmesu and his father (...)". This event has little evidence to maintain the claim, yet it still elucidates the complicated matter of exactly whom to attribute the original idea to.

The most popular originator of Father's Day in the United States belongs to Ms. Sonora Louis Smart Dodd. Mother's Day was already established, but Ms. Dodd's own mother had passed away during the birth of her sixth child. It was a sermon on Mother's Day in 1909 when Ms. Dodd, at 27, decided that her own father deserved a grander level of appreciation, having single handedly raised herself and her siblings. Her father, Mr. William Jackson Smart, was a Civil War Veteran and a kind and loving man who raised his children with a tremendous amount of respect.

However, the precise attributable credit is questionable. July 5, 1908, the first Father's Day in Fairmont, West Virginia took place. "(..)it was first celebrated as a church service at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton, who is believed to have suggested the service to the pastor, is believed to have been inspired to celebrate fathers after the deadly mine explosion in nearby Monongah the prior December. This explosion killed 361 men, many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States from Italy."

Due to the rapid acceptance of Ms. Dodd's proposal, support from the YMCA and inspirational drive from Ms. Anna Jarvis' battle to have a day to honor mothers, Ms. Dodd's is the most accepted version of the origins of Fathers Day in the United States. Major supporters were Woodrow Wilson - family celebrated Fathers Day, prior to the official acceptance, in 1916, Calvin Coolidge - who recommended recognition of the holiday in 1924, and Lyndon Johnson - in 1966. signed the bill to recognize the holiday on the third Sunday of June. Even so, it wasn't until 1972 that Father's Day truly became a "holiday" in the eyes of the American people.

sources:
www.fathersdaycelebration.com/fathers -day-history
www.wikipedia.com

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