Father’s Day

Here at Snapfōn®, we support the importance of family values. We are raised by and grow up with our families, and they play a prominent part in our upbringing and daily lives. This weekend, we join the rest of the country in celebrating Father’s Day.

Father’s Day is a holiday that celebrates the contributions of our fathers to our families and society as a whole. In the US, it is observed on the third Sunday of June. This year Father’s day is celebrated on June 19th. Today we take a brief look into the history of the holiday throughout the past century.

The holiday was first celebrated in Washington in 1910 when a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd united different communities together to celebrate fatherhood. Her father, William Jackson Smart, was a Civil War Veteran who became widowed and raised 5 children on his own. Dodd proposed a male equivalent to Mother’s Day, mostly with respect to her own father.

Although Mother’s Day was established and federally recognized in 1908, Father’s Day  wasn’t declared an official holiday until 1972, mostly due to the opposition it faced. In the early 1900s, the patriarchal culture of US society didn’t hold the same sentiment toward fathers as they did mothers. Some felt a celebration of the holiday compromised the masculinite values of men as “providers”. Others felt it was a commercial ploy to convince people to spend more money.

There was even an effort to abolish both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in favor of one Parent’s Day in the late 1920s. However, this effort failed to gain enough momentum during the Great Depression. Struggling businesses and retailers began to market Father’s Day as a “Second Christmas” for fathers, helping it gain more popularity.

The observation of Father’s Day as a national holiday was proposed again in 1966 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a proclamation declaring it to be celebrated every third Sunday of June. This officially took effect in 1972, when President Nixon signed the proclamation. Outside of the United States, Father’s Day is celebrated in different cultures across the world. Father’s Day is observed on March 19th in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Latin America, whereas Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji celebrate it in September.

Today, Snapfōn® would like to say thank you to all the Fathers who have contributed to the betterment of their families and society as a whole. We wish you the best time celebrating this weekend.