Father's Day 2018: How a mining disaster inspired a grieving daughter to create the international holiday

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there – but have you ever wondered when, why and how the day first started being celebrated?

Here is everything you need to know about Father's Day (including where to place that pesky apostrophe).

When is Father's Day 2018?

Father’s Day is held every year on the third Sunday of June; this year Father’s Day falls today - on Sunday, June 17 in the UK.

Typically, fathers are showered with cards and gifts on Father’s Day, with some families celebrating together by going on days out. Younger children tend to make handmade gifts for their fathers at school and extracurricular clubs, including drawings, paintings or cards.

As society and family structures have changed, some people now celebrate their stepfathers on Father’s Day.  In recent years there have been calls for a Stepfather's Day, however no such day has been officially discussed or introduced.

Why do we celebrate Father's Day? 

The celebration of Father's Day comes from the US and followed the first observation of Mother's Day in the US in 1908.

American social activist Anna Jarvis had lobbied the government for an official day to honour mothers in the US, dedicating her life to the cause after her mother's death in 1905.

She first celebrated the day in 1908, when she held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Although US Congress rejected her bid to make the day a national holiday in 1908, by 1911 people in all US states had started celebrating the day.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May to be 'Mother's Day', to honour the day Anna Jarvis' mother died. 

Grace Golden Clayton, from Fairmont, West Virginia, was the woman behind the first observance of Father’s Day on July 5 1908. She suggested to her pastor that fathers should be honoured, inspired by fellow West Virginian Jarvis' campaign and the Monongah Mining Disaster in December 1907. The disaster left 360 men dead – including 210 fathers – and Grace Golden Clayton argued that children in the town needed a time to remember their fathers.

Grace's father, Methodist minister Rev. Fletcher Golden had died in 1896; like Anna Jarvis did before her, she suggested the Sunday closest to his birthday, July 8, to honour him. The event was held, however it was never promoted outside Fairmont and had a limited impact because of the celebration of Independence Day on July 4.

Yet the idea was also picked up on the other side the next year. After hearing a sermon about Jarvis’ Mother’s Day, Sonora Smart Dodd, from Washington, also told her pastor in 1909 that fathers should be honoured in the same way as mothers.

Dodd, one of six children, was raised by civil war veteran and single parent William Jackson Smart after her mother, Ellen Victoria Cheek Smart, died during childbirth.

With the local YMCA and the Ministerial Association of Spokane, a city near where she was born, Dodd began a campaign to have the day officially recognised.

The first such 'Father’s Day' was held at the YMCA in Spokane in 1910, with a number of towns and cities across America later following suit.

Support for Father’s Day quickly increased throughout the US and in 1924 President Calvin Coolidge pressured state governments to mark the celebration.

President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honouring fathers in 1966, making the third Sunday in June Father’s Day. Six years later President Richard Nixon signed it into law, establishing the day as a national holiday – though in the UK it does not enjoy this status.

The move came after a campaign by a number of public figures, including Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who in 1957 wrote to Congress: “Either we honour both our parents, mother and father, or let us desist from honouring either one.

“But to single out just one of our two parents and omit the other is the most grievous insult imaginable.”

The UK is thought to have adopted the celebration of Father’s Day from the US after the Second World War. Although Grace Golden Clayton originally campaigned for the day in order to show appreciation for fathers lost in a mining disaster, now the day simply exists to celebrate fathers around the world.

Father’s Day around the world

While in the UK fathers can expect, at best, breakfast in bed and handmade card and, at worst, the day to be completely ignored, elsewhere the festival is done a little differently.

In Germany, Father’s Day is called Vatertag with it also being referred to as Männertag, which means men’s day. The celebration falls on the Thursday 40 days after Easter.

In certain regions it is traditional for groups of men to go into the woods with a wagon of beer, wines and meats. Heavy drinking is common and, according to official statistics, traffic-related accidents spike on this day

In Australia, Father’s Day falls on the first Sunday of September, which is their first Sunday of Spring, while in Croatia, they observe Roman Catholic tradition and celebrate fathers on March 19, Saint Joseph’s Day.

In China, Father’s Day used to be celebrated on August 8 as the Chinese for eight is “ba”, while a colloquial word for father is “ba-ba” – so the eighth day of the eighth month sounds similar to “daddy”.

The day has since been moved to the third Sunday of June, in line with the UK and US.

In France, the day was introduced in 1949 for commercial reasons by lighter manufacturer Flaminaire. Inspired by the US' day of celebration, they created a new advert with the slogan 'Nos papas nous l'ont dit, pour la fête des pères, ils désirent tous un Flaminaire' ('Our fathers told us, for father's day, they all want a Flaminaire'). Three years later an official decree was made to recognise the day.

Most countries celebrate Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June including the UK, USA, Mexico, Ireland, France, Greece, China and Japan. 

However not all countries celebrate it then. In Brazil, Father’s Day falls on the second Sunday of August and this day was chosen in honour of Saint Joachim, the patron saint of fathers. According to Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox traditions, Joachim was the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Is it Father's Day, Fathers' Day or Fathers Day?

Ah, the age old question. The answer? Many say Father's Day is the correct version. Mother's Day (which has the apostrophe before the 's') set the precedent while Father's Day was still gaining popularity. Anna Jarvis trademarked the term 'Mother's Day' – with the apostrophe before the 's' – in 1912, saying the word should 'be a singular possessive, for each family to honor its own mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world'.

President Woodrow Wilson used this spelling when he formalised Mother's Day in 1914; this means the correct version of the word is spelled with the apostrophe before the 's'. Father's Day has followed suit, with cards on both sides of the pond including the apostrophe in the same place.