Readers of my blog may be familiar with my historical examination of Mothers’ Day [1] and the fact that I have already commented briefly and somewhat critically about the phenomenon by which Thailand honors its king on Fathers’ Day by supposing him to be the father of his country. Like the history of Mother’s Day, the history of Father’s Day has some intriguing connections with history and religion and commerce. There is even a tie in between Fathers’ Day and a day that I have scarcely even heard of that deserves at least some mention given its obscurity. So, with that said, let us look briefly at the history of Fathers’ Day and examine how it came to be a day for giving ties out to Fathers.

Fathers’ Day was first promoted after the growing success of Mothers’ Day, when young women in West Virginia and Spokane, Washington [3] started promoting festivals close to the birthdays of their fathers as a way to honor their fathers and hoped to encourage wider observance. For a variety of reasons, including a greater amount of civic support, the Spokane festival is what ended up sticking, in large part because of the support of the Father’s Day Council, which was funded by a group of New York City Male Apparrel Stores. This close connection of commerce and a day supposedly set aside to honor fathers opened up the day to initial ridicule, probably delayed its ultimate acceptance (it was not until 1972 that Richard Nixon signed Fathers’ Day into law), and is probably accountable for the lamentable association with ties.

As is the case with Mothers’ Day, there is a significant amount of local variance in the way the day is celebrated. Many Catholic countries, for example, celebrate Fathers’ Day on St. Joseph’s Day, which is rather ironic when one thinks about the fact that Joseph, the husband of Mary, is the most famous stepfather in biblical history as the stepfather of the Son of God, though at least a couple of his kids (James and Judas, the author of James and Jude) certainly became somewhat famous in their own right. Other nations honor fathers in ways related to patriotism–Argentina’s Fathers’ Day, for example, has been involved in a long political fight to move the day to celebrate when Jose de San Martin, hero of Argentine independence, became a father. In Nepal the day has been tied with some ancestor worship practices, which is not too surprising, I guess. On a day where business and politics coincide, there is going to be some fireworks and controversy attached to the day.

Even though the actual observance of Fathers’ Day is very recent, one would not in any way guess that the festival itself was scarcely older than I am as a national holiday. It would appear that as the case with Mothers’ Day, that the cultural influence of the United States is responsible in many ways for spreading the festival around the world, as people want to copy what we are doing and can scarcely wish to admit that they honor their fathers and mothers less than we do. What is striking, though, is that Fathers’ Day has often been seen in connection with other days, whether it is Mothers’ Day (which served as a model for how Fathers’ Day could be recognized later) or Graduation Day, which in Oregon often coincides with Fathers’ Day to the extent that “Dads & Grads” are often honored at the same time.

One day that ought to be more closely connected to Fathers’ Day has been largely ignored. While Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day and the International Day of Women are all honored in countries and a big deal is made of them, International Men’s Day [4] has not been particularly well-recognized in the United States, even though men do need a day free of man-bashing commercials on television or radio or movies or television shows that present men and fathers in particular as bumbling and incompetent idiots as is so often the case in our corrupt contemporary culture. If our society really wanted to honor its fathers, it could easily do so by greater day to day respect, and by starting young, respecting young men from early ages, since we learn how to respect others by receiving respect ourselves. That is something we can practice every day.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/mothers-day-a-complicated-history/

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/the-father-of-his-nation/

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Men%27s_Day