This weekend we celebrate and honor all of our fathers both living and deceased. Unlike Mother’s Day which was thought of in 1908, then proclaimed officially by President Wilson in 1914 – just 6 years in the making, Father’s Day took much longer to become an officially recognized celebration in America. On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers. A Sunday sermon was given in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions, at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah. This was the first ever public type celebration of fathers. The next year, a Spokane, Washington, woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for fathers. She went to local churches, neighbors, shopkeepers and government officials to drum up support for her idea, and she was successful to some degree as Washington state celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. Still however, not “official.” So why the delay for a “father’s day?” It seemed any official proclamation to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm not because father’s were not important and didn’t need honored, but it was the association with the already established Mother’s Day that may have played a role in its delayed official recognition. As one florist explained, “fathers don’t often have the same sentimental appeal to flowers and cards as mothers have.” So, officially honoring our fathers publicly from the first 1908 sermon until it was officially made a federal holiday by President Richard Nixon took longer. (unlike Mother’s Day, a mere 6 years.) This doesn’t mean father’s were not celebrated just because the United States did not make any official proclamation. The Catholic Church in Europe and in Latin America have been celebrating fathers for hundreds of years on March 19th, the feast of St. Joseph. Let us today celebrate the dedication and support that all of our father’s have given to us. If that support was less than perfect, then pray for them. Remember, today we celebrate father’s both living and deceased. Through the intercession Saint Joseph, we place and dedicate our father’s in his hands this day and everyday. Fr. Roach
