We’ve often heard that Mother’s Day was created by greeting card companies, but why was Father’s Day created? A cynic might say it was created by necktie manufacturers and is now perpetuated by purveyors of power tools. Certainly the date we have settled on, the third Sunday in June, parallels Mother’s Day in May.

Incidentally, Anna Jarvis, credited with founding Mother’s Day in 1908, created it to honor her own mother and passionately opposed its growing commercialization.

There have been tributes to parents of both sexes since ancient times. The inspiration for our modern Father’s Day was Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, who reared six children after his wife died.

In 1909, his daughter Sonora Smart Dodd came up with the idea for Father’s Day and suggested it be celebrated on June 5, her dad’s birthday. Mother’s Day had recently become a recognized holiday and she reasoned there should be a national day to recognize and honor the role of fathers in society. The following year, for the “first” Father’s Day, the Spokane, Washington, Ministerial Association and the YMCA had prepared sermons devoted to fatherhood. They set the observance on the third Sunday in June. Sonora also celebrated privately by delivering presents to handicapped fathers.

This was not the first occasion where fatherhood was lauded in the United States. On July 5, 1908, in Fairmount, West Virginia, Grace Golden Clayton spearheaded an event at her church to honor all fathers. Her own father, and others in the community, had died in a terrible mining explosion at the Fairmont Coal Company the previous December.

Others suggested setting aside a day to honor fathers as well. The holiday did not become official until 1966, when President Lyndon Johnson declared that the third Sunday in June would be Father’s Day. President Richard Nixon made the proclamation permanent in 1972.

On Father’s Day we reflect on the role a father plays in one’s life. At its finest, it is a celebration of the contribution of fathers to their families, a way to show appreciation to one of the most relevant persons in our lives. Not all fathers may reflect the ideal that is portrayed and not everyone is blessed to have a loving father who is part of his or her life.  We are allowed to ignore the day or scoff at it as a manufactured display of sentimentalism. Each of us is free to choose the significance – if any – this day holds for us.

Worldwide, many will celebrate Father’s Day as a time to recognize the contributions fathers and father figures have made in their lives. Those who can spend a golden day with their dads are blessed.