What is the origin of Father’s Day and why is it celebrated in August

Here in Brazil, the Father’s Day it is celebrated on the second Sunday of August and, this year, the celebration will take place on the next 12th. But it didn’t always work that way.

The Origin of Father’s Day

One of the versions about the emergence of the date says that the person responsible for creating Father’s Day would be Sonora Louise Smart Dodd🇧🇷 In 1909, while attending a Mother’s Day celebration, she would have had the idea to honor her father, William Jackson Smart, a veteran of the American Civil War.

Sonora greatly admired him for raising her and her five siblings alone after their mother’s death. So she reportedly asked the Ministerial Association of Spokane, Washington, to establish a day to honor fathers. In addition, she would also have asked for help from a Young Christian Entity, which soon supported her.

So, in June 19, 1910, William’s birthday, would have been America’s first Father’s Day. The symbol of the event would have been the rose: the red ones would be dedicated to the living parents and the white ones, to the dead.

The practice would have spread across the United States and was only made official in 1966, when President Lyndon Johnson declared the third Sunday of June as the perfect date for celebration. However, there are sources that claim that Father’s Day was even legitimized there only in 1972, by President Richard Nixon.

Even today, the United States and many other countries continue to celebrate the date on the third Sunday of June.

But the story goes further

Even if the party as we know it is relatively recent, there are those who say that Father’s Day was born way before that, more than four thousand years ago🇧🇷

Elmesu, son of King Nebuchadnezzar, would have shaped the first “Father’s Day card” still in ancient Babylon.

As a gift, he would have made a clay plaque in which he wished his dad luck, health and long life. So that occasion would have given rise to a feast day.

How did the date appear in Brazil?

Although the date is well known nowadays, it only happened around here on August 16, 1953. “Daddy’s Day” was thought up by publicist Sylvio Bhering, who was director of the newspaper O Globo and the homonymous radio station, and wanted to attract advertisers.

As the Brazilian population was predominantly Catholic, the initial idea was to associate the date with the day of São Joaquim, who, in Catholic tradition, is the father of Mary and grandfather of Jesus. Then, August 16th was marked as Father’s Day for Brazilians.

Oh, it’s worth remembering that, until then, that was the date on which the saint’s day was celebrated. It was only during the papacy of Paul VI (between 1963 and 1978) that July 26 became the day of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, when Grandparents’ Day is celebrated.

After some time, it was decided that Father’s Day should be celebrated on the second Sunday of August🇧🇷 And that’s how it works to this day!

There is a hypothesis that the change happened in analogy to Mother’s Day, which also happens on the second Sunday of the month. However, there are those who say that it happened so that the date always fell on Sundays, which allows the family to spend more time together at this special moment.