When is Father’s Day and how is it observed?

Father’s Day is nearing and it seems many of you are wondering when exactly it’s being celebrated.

The same can’t be said about Mother’s Day because social media, advertising and marketing companies will remind you that this special day for your mom is coming soon, and you need to get her something.

More often than not Mother’s Day plans, gifts and celebrations are sorted out weeks prior. However, Father’s Day seems to be a last-minute thing for many people.

The stereotypes of absent fathers and not-so-present dads also don’t help. But some people are trying to change this, especially the new generation celebrating present dads who are redefining fatherhood.

So, when is Father’s Day?

As it was trending on Google this weekend, there seemed to panic about when exactly the day would be, with the assumption it was this Sunday, 5 June 2022.

Father’s Day is the third Sunday of the month of June, observed annually. This year it will be on 19 June 2022.

The day “celebrates and honours the men who have embraced the essential role of fatherhood,” Almanac reports. It also helps thank fathers and father figures (uncles, grandfathers) who helped nurture and raise children.

Father’s Day service is believed to have started in America in 1908 after a mining accident that killed hundreds of men.

Grace Golden Clayton, missing her own father who died ten years prior wanted to honour those who had died in the mining explosion which left about 1,000 children fatherless.

The service in Fairmont, West Virginia is known as the first way to honour fathers, however, it was Sonora Smart Dodd known as the woman to popularise the day.

She took inspiration from a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909 and believed fathers need to be celebrated as well. At first, she chose the date 5 June, her father’s birthday, but it will only be in 1910 that the day would be observed nationally in the US.

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Compiled by Sandisiwe Mbhele