Happy Father’s Day from the Jefferson County Post!

Sunday, June 21, 2015, is host to one of the most celebrated holidays in contemporary history: Father’s Day, a celebration of love and appreciation for the impact that fathers have on individuals and culture around the world. While Father’s Day and Mother’s Day are celebrated with very similar vigor, the histories of the two differ greatly after the holidays’ conception. While Mother’s Day was welcomed with open arms, many people in the United States were skeptical of Father’s Day, thinking the celebration was trying to benefit from commercialization on the heels of Mother’s Day. In 1910, Sonora Dodd rallied for the first Father’s Day in Spokane, Washington, in mourning for her father. While local priests championed the idea, the holiday wasn’t pushed nationally until the 1920s, though Father’s Day was still never officially recognized as a national holiday. Approximately four decades later, in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a presidential proclamation honoring fathers, simultaneously designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Finally, in 1972, President Nixon signed Father’s Day into Law as a national holiday. Today, Father’s Day is celebrated in some form in dozens of countries, some of which follow the American establishment, while others like Germany adhere to more traditional local holidays of paternal honoring.