In the Philippines, we owe it to the US for bringing Father’s Day to our shores. The celebration of Father’s Day, like Mother’s Day, spread throughout the country after the holiday became a mainstay on US soil.
It wasn’t until the ’80s, however, that the holiday gained traction in the country. The late President Ferdinand E. Marcos (PFEM), through Proclamation No. 2037, declared the first Monday of December each year as both Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. This would change in 1988 after President Corazon Aquino opted to follow the US date, declaring every third Sunday of June as Father’s Day through Proclamation No. 266.
President Joseph Estrada applied changes yet again in 1998, after deciding to reinstate PFEM’s chosen celebration date of the first Monday of December each year. This time, it was established that the day would be dedicated to both fathers and mothers. Despite this, Father’s Day continues to be celebrated by many Filipinos on the third Sunday of June and instead of the first Monday of December as Parents’
As for the origin of Father’s Day, we owe it all to Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington in the US. Sonora was supposedly listening to a sermon
related to the relatively new Mother’s Day holiday when she came up with the idea. She was the daughter of a Civil War veteran, William Jackson Smart.
He had raised her and her five siblings after their mother died in childbirth. Hoping to come up with a similar way of celebrating fathers, Sonora met up with local church leaders and government officials to support her idea. Although the idea of honoring fathers might not have been new at the time, as a year prior members of a West Virginia church held a single day to honor men who perished in a mining accident, it was Sonora’s initiative that led to the establishment of the holiday.
Sonora’s clamor for a celebration honoring fathers was met positively. On June 10, 1910, Washington D.C. decided to celebrate the first-ever
Father’s Day. It soon gained increasing support on a federal level after receiving an endorsement from the likes of US Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge. It wouldn’t be fully recognized until 1966, however, after US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an official proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day. It was later established as a permanent national holiday by US President Richard Nixon in 1972.
As we celebrate Father’s Day this year, let us remember to tell our Dads how much they mean to us and give them the show of appreciation they deserve.