Father's Day Cards

You may not know this factoid but dads do not get much of a look-in in the card buying derby. Birthday cards and Mother’s Day cards top the list. Poor old dads come way down. So here’s to Father’s Day cards for the dad in your life, because dad’s appreciate good wishes too – they just don’t show their disappointment when they don’t get a card.

Mums would find it unforgivable not to receive a Mother’s Day card. And they would make their feelings known very plainly. Dads on the other hand would probably feel just as bad but simply not say anything.

Dads may say that they just don’t care that much whether they receive a card. They may say they are just not that into cards. Underneath all that they can feel, but just not let on.

Father’s Day Is A Modern Invention

Of course, Father’s Day is a modern invention dreamed up in the USA by Sonora Smart Dodd in 1910.

Dodd invented Father’s Day specifically because she thought there ought to be a counterpart to Mother’s Day. So there!

And then the idea spread back to the UK. And it is celebrated in both countries on the third Sunday in June.

Compare that to the floating date of Mother’s Day, that has its roots back in Mothering Sunday. You can read about that here and learn all about the fascinating story of what Mother was back in the day.

Getting back to Sonora Smart Dodd, her father was twice widowed. And he brought up Sonora and her five brothers from those two marriages, single handedly.

So when Dodd heard about the newly designated Mother’s Day, she thought there ought to be something that recognised the devotion of fathers like hers. She wanted the 5th June, her father’s birthday, but the local clergy settled on the third Sunday in June.

The Third Sunday In June

The day started locally in Washington State where Dodd lived and spread from there. In 1955 President Johnson proclaimed the third Sunday in June as Father’s day. And getting in on the act, in 1972 President Nixon made it a national day. And the rest, as they say, is history.