Fathers are unique. This certainly was a sentiment true for Sonora Louise Smart (Dodd) of Spokane, Washington in 1909. She witnessed the love and devotion of her father William, a Civil War Veteran raise a newborn and his five other children after the death of his wife. At the age 27, Sonora was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon and pondered why there wasn’t a day to honor fathers. Herein began her hard work and struggle to make certain a date on the calendar would include a Father’s Day. Initially, after the first celebration of a day for fathers on June 19, 1910 it was only sporadically recognized throughout the United States. 6 years later, in 1916 it was celebrated in Washington, D.C. and in 1924, President, Calvin Coolidge urged each state to observe the day. A ‘father’s day’ was a difficult holiday proposition and not consistently recognized. Some worried it wasn’t manly to receive gifts and flowers, as mothers received on their “day,” and the dads figured they would be the ones footing the bill for such gifts. Current day estimates state that Americans spend more than $1 billion on gifts each Father’s Day (thanks, Dad).
Thanks certainly are in order for the persistence of Mrs. Dodd and others throughout the years. A wise man said and many agreed the reason to uphold a day for fathers was to “establish more [meaningful relationship] between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.” From Sonora’s initial work in 1909, it was four decades later when President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day! And in 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father’s Day to be held on the third Sunday of June. So, just over 100 years later we can say decidedly, in many languages ~ Happy (fill in the blank) Day!
Yiddish : tatti Japanese : otosan Slovenian : ôèe Estonian : isa Arabic : babba
Welsh : tad Italian : babbo Sicilian : patri Dutch : vader Mandarin Chinese : baba
Venetian : pare Irish : daidí Sanskrit : tàtah Czech : táta Malay : bapa
Turkish : baba Indonesian : bapa Russian : papa Croatian/Bosnian : otac Latin : pater
Spanish : tata Hungarian : édesapa Romanian : parinte Norwegian : pappa Latvian : tevs
Swahili : mzazi Hindi : pita-ji Polish : ojciec Nepali : buwa Lithuanian : tevas
Swedish : pappa Hebrew : abba(h) Portuguese : pai Brazilian Portuguese : pai English : father ; dad ; daddy ;
Slovak : otec German : papi Persian/Farsi : pedar Korean:, appa pop ; poppa ; papa
French : papa Filipino : tatay Finnish : isä Maori : haakoro
