Father's Day

I other countries they celebrate Father’s Day the third Sunday in June. Here in Norway Father’s Day is the second Sunday in November! Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know ;o)

Father’s Day is a day when people give presents to their fathers. Here in Norway it’s not only the children who give presents, also adults give presents to their fathers. Many families also have traditions to be together the whole family both on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. Many people also bake a cake to the father in the house.

The origin of Father’s Day is not clear. Some say that it began with a church service in West Virginia, USA, in 1908. Others say the first Father’s Day ceremony was held in Vancouver, Washington in USA. The president of the Chicago branch of the Lions’ Club, Harry Meek, is said to have celebrated the first Father’s Day with his organization in 1915. They celebrated it the third Sunday in June because it was the closest date to Meek’s own birthday!

 

What we know is the strongest promoter of the holiday was Mrs. Bruce John Dodd of Spokane, Washington in USA. Mrs. Dodd felt that she had an outstanding father. He was a veteran of the Civil War. His wife had died young, and he had raised six children without their mother. 

In 1909 Mrs. Dodd approached her own minister and others in Spokane, USA, about having a church service dedicated to fathers on June 5th, her father’s birthday. That date was too soon for her minister to prepare the service, so he spoke a few weeks later on June 19th. From then on, the state of Washington celebrated the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day.

 

In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge in USA made Father’s day to a national event. Since then, fathers had been honored and recognized by their families in USA on the third Sunday in June.

In Norway we have celebrated Father’s Day since 1948. As I told you on the top of this page, we have Father’s Day second Sunday in November, not in June.

In my family we have no traditions to celebrate Father’s Day. In my husband’s family my mother-in-law use to make a cake and we use to visit them on Father’s Day. We don’t use to give presents to my father, my father-in-law or to my husband (we have two children).

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