Sunday is Father’s Day! We want to offer an overflowing plate of respect and appreciation and gratitude to all of the fathers among the AMS employees and clients and friends. We thank you for your strength, your guidance, your sacrifice, your time, your influence and your love. We hope your Day is perfect, whether there are gifts or a big meal or a fun outing – we want it to be perfect.
The History of Your Holiday
Wikipedia tells us that the celebration of fatherhood is very old – in Catholic Europe it dates back to 1508. They celebrated on March 19th and focused on St. Joseph, father of Jesus. The Eastern Orthodox church focused on Adam and emphasized Abraham whose children were to bless the earth.
In the US Father’s Day has its own history. We went to the Farmer’s Almanac [LINK] for that information. Quoting from the website:
“The first known Father’s Day service occurred in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908, after the worst mining accident in U.S. history. This horrific accident killed more than 360 men and boys and left about 1,000 children fatherless. Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton wanted to honor the many fathers who had died with a Sunday service in Fairmont. Mrs. Clayton was the daughter of a dedicated reverend who had died in 1896, so she knew what it was like to lose a father.”
Father’s Day did not become an annual event at this time. It took a woman named Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd to make it into an annual holiday across the nation. According to the Almanac, in 1909 she heard a Mother’s Day sermon and thought – there needs to be a Father’s Day. From the article comes more of the story:
“Mrs. Dodd’s father, William Smart, had raised his SIX children alone on his farm in Washington after his wife died giving birth. Mrs. Dodd proposed to the Spokane Ministerial Association and the YMCA that they celebrate a “father’s day.” She chose the 5th of June because it was her father’s birthday. The idea received strong support, but the good ministers of Spokane asked that the day be changed to give them extra time to prepare sermons on the unexplored subject of fathers. The first Father’s Day in Spokane, Washington, was observed on June 19, 1910 (the third Sunday in June) and became an annual event there. Soon, other towns had their own celebrations.”
After that, Father’s Day in June had widespread support across the nation, but it didn’t get named a national holiday until 1972. In that year President Richard Nixon made it official. He signed a law declaring that Father’s Day will be celebrated across the nation on the third Sunday in June. That’s the US history – a woman who was raised by her father is the one who made it happen.
A Poem for the Fathers
We searched for a poem to give to our readers about fathers and we found “Only a Dad” by Edgar Albert Guest. Hope you enjoy it [LINK].
Only a Dad
By Edgar Albert Guest
Only a dad, with a tired face,
Coming home from the daily race,
Bringing little of gold or fame,
To show how well he has played the game,
But glad in his heart that his own rejoice
To see him come, and to hear his voice.
Only a dad, with a brood of four,
One of ten million men or more.
Plodding along in the daily strife,
Bearing the whips and the scorns of life,
With never a whimper of pain or hate,
For the sake of those who at home await.
Only a dad, neither rich nor proud,
Merely one of the surging crowd
Toiling, striving from day to day,
Facing whatever may come his way,
Silent, whenever the harsh condemn,
And bearing it all for the love of them.
Only a dad, but he gives his all
To smooth the way for his children small,
Doing, with courage stern and grim,
The deeds that his father did for him.
This is the line that for him I pen,
Only a dad, but the best of men.
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!
