From the Walton Tribune-
I recently joked with my dad about how we (the whole country) are going to skip Father’s Day this year.
It is all in great fun, as I believe it is great we celebrate the men who sacrifice everyday to give their children something they never had. Fathers deserve a little recognition for the hard work they endure.
We as Americans celebrate the holiday each year, though I doubt very many actually know the origins of Father’s Day, and why it means so much.
It was on July 5, 1908 in Fairmont, W. Va., at an Episcopal church that the very first known celebration of Father’s Day occurred. It is said that Grace Golden Clayton suggested the memorial idea to the pastor after a mining explosion in Monongah, W. Va. killed 361 men in December 1907.
In a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd was inspired to also create a holiday recognizing fathers. She wanted to honor her dad, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, for raising her and her siblings after Sonora’s mother died. Smart was born in June, hence the reason she worked to celebrate the holiday on June 19.
I wonder if our intentions on Father’s Day even come close to those of Clayton and Dodd. We need to get back to the reason Father’s Day was created in the first place — to honor and be thankful for dads, whether alive or deceased.
More here-
http://www.waltontribune.com/story.lasso?ewcd=ff4b3fc761ed26ea
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