He's the man with a plan (and, if he's like my dad, a really bad tanline). While we love our dads all year long, Father's Day gives us a day dedicated to really cherishing all that they do for us. But just how did this day get started? How does it stack up to other holidays? What about Father's Day around the world? Wonder no more. If your dad's a trivia buff, you can impress him with these 10 cool facts about Father's Day that even he might not know.
That's right; his day has been around (unofficially) for a long time. It can all be traced back to a small event held on July 5, 1908, the result of Grace Golden Clayton's efforts. The previous year, a mining accident devastated her community, killing not just her father, but hundreds of other men. Clayton subsequently organized with her church to set up a day to honor her father and others who were lost during that accident. Unfortunately, however, this event didn't really get much attention outside the local community.
.jpg "Grace Golden Clayton started the first unofficial Father's Day in 1908")
The more widely known "first" Father's Day took place in Spokane, Washington. A young woman, Sonora Dodd, was moved after hearing about Mother's Day events, and wanted a counterpart event to honor her own single father. She worked with her local YMCA to make it happen on June 19, 1910.
Father's Day is currently a public holiday in the United States, but that didn't happen until relatively recently. You can thank President Richard Nixon for making this holiday official. In 1972, he signed a bill that formally established the third Sunday in June as a public holiday in the States. For comparison, the first Mother's Day event was held in 1908 and became a federal holiday in 1914.
While there were many arguments against formally establishing the holiday, a big one was the fear that creating a new holiday would only lead to it becoming commercialized.
Well, the naysayers weren't wrong. The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that, in 2019, spending for this holiday in the United States will reach $16 billion. That's about $139 per person!
Okay, $16 billion is a lot of money. So, just what is everyone buying for their dads? According to Entrepreneur, the top gifts are special outings, clothing, gift cards, and electronics.
$16 billion is nothing to sneeze at, but that estimate still pales in comparison to other holidays. Take Easter, for example. In 2018, the NRF expected spending for that holiday to reach roughly $150 per person, or up to $18.2 billion nationally. The NRF further estimated spending for Mother's Day in 2019 to reach $25 billion. And in comparison to Christmas? Well, in 2018 the NRF estimated that spending during the winter holidays would reach over $1,000 per person, or up to $720.89 billion in the States!
According to the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse, there are approximately 70.1 million dads in the country. About 214,000 people were stay-at-home dads in 2013.
According to Pew Research Center, dads in 2016 spent about 3x more time on child care than those in 1965. The average time fathers reported spending on child care in any given week was 8 hours in 2016.
While Father's Day is a public holiday in the United States, that's often not the case in several countries, although many do often celebrate Father's Day or an equivalent. However, the day of honoring dads isn't always on the third Sunday of June. Brazilians celebrate the holiday on the second Sunday of August, with the date paying homage to Saint Joachim, the father of the Virgin Mary. And in Thailand, the holiday is held on the birthday (December 5) of their late king, Bhumibol Adulyadej.
