So Fathers day is nearly upon on us – This festivals history stems from the US and is joined at the hip to the Mothers day celebration. Dads get a day off too!!
The date varies depending on which country you are in. In Australia it is the first Sunday in September but mostly it is the third Sunday in June (many countries), this year it is 17th June 2012. The day Mothers day relates to remembering mothers of Confederate & Union soldiers. in 1908 a department store in Philadelphia sponsored a service dedicated to mothers in its auditorium. The next year 45 states observed the day and President Woodrow Wilson then made the second Sunday in May a holiday.
Fathers Day was inevitable some might say and it was not welcomed with as much enthusiasm as fathers are not that keen on flowers and soppy presents. On July 5 1908 a church in West Virginia sponsored the nations first event in honour of fathers. A recent tragedy where 362 men had died the previous December at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monogah. The next year a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd one of six children raised by a widower went to town on getting Fathers Day on the map. After a lot of work and relentlessly failing to give up the nations first statewide fathers day was held on July 19, 1910
Slowly slowly support for the Fathers Day holiday spread and it is still not quite as popular as Mothers Day. We think its great though and if your dad is at work and is not that sentimental he will love receiving a happy fathers day eCard. It will be a moment out of his day and he will be chuffed to bits. Here below is a nice selection of eCards:
