Saturday, June 18, 2016

The Roving Reporter : Happy Father's Day

 Anna Jarvis

On June 19, 1910, the governor of the U.S. state of Washington proclaimed the nation’s first “Father’s Day.” However, it was not until 1972, 58 years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official, that the day became a nationwide holiday in the United States.
MOTHER’S DAY: INSPIRATION FOR FATHER’S DAY
The “Mother’s Day” we celebrate today has its origins in the peace-and-reconciliation campaigns of the post-Civil War era. During the 1860s, at the urging of activist Ann Reeves Jarvis, one divided West Virginia town celebrated “Mother’s Work Days” that brought together the mothers of Confederate and Union soldiers. In 1870, the activist Julia Ward Howe issued a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” calling on a “general congress of women” to “promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, [and] the great and general interests of peace.”

Did You Know?
There are more than 70 million fathers in the United States.

However, Mother’s Day did not become a commercial holiday until 1908, when–inspired by Jarvis’s daughter Anna, who wanted to honor her own mother by making Mother’s Day a national holiday–the John Wanamaker department store in Philadelphia sponsored a service dedicated to mothers in its auditorium. Thanks in large part to this association with retailers, who saw great potential for profit in the holiday, Mother’s Day caught on right away. In 1909, 45 states observed the day, and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson approved a resolution that made the second Sunday in May a holiday in honor of “that tender, gentle army, the mothers of America.”

ORIGINS OF FATHER’S DAY
The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm–perhaps because, as one florist explained, “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.” On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers, a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah, but it was a one-time commemoration and not an annual holiday. The next year, a Spokane, Washington woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. She went to local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials to drum up support for her idea, and she was successful: Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. Slowly, the holiday spread. In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to unfurl a flag in Spokane when he pressed a button in Washington, D.C. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge urged state governments to observe Father’s Day. However, many men continued to disdain the day. As one historian writes, they “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products–often paid for by the father himself.”

FATHER’S DAY: CONTROVERSY AND COMMERCIALISM
During the 1920s and 1930s, a movement arose to scrap Mother’s Day and Father’s Day altogether in favor of a single holiday, Parents’ Day. Every year on Mother’s Day, pro-Parents’ Day groups rallied in New York City’s Central Park–a public reminder, said Parents’ Day activist and radio performer Robert Spere, “that both parents should be loved and respected together.” Paradoxically, however, the Depression derailed this effort to combine and de-commercialize the holidays. Struggling retailers and advertisers redoubled their efforts to make Father’s Day a “second Christmas” for men, promoting goods such as neckties, hats, socks, pipes and tobacco, golf clubs and other sporting goods, and greeting cards. When World War II began, advertisers began to argue that celebrating Father’s Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort. By the end of the war, Father’s Day may not have been a federal holiday, but it was a national institution.

In 1972, in the middle of a hard-fought presidential re-election campaign, Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday at last. Today, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts.




Happy Father's Day  to each and everyone 
The Roving Reporter                     G.

9 comments:

  1. Happy Father's Day Dad
    A Father means so many things...
    A understanding heart,
    A source of strength and of support
    Right from the very start.
    A constant readiness to help
    In a kind and thoughtful way.
    With encouragement and forgiveness
    No matter what comes your way.
    A special generosity and always affection, too
    A Father means so many things
    When he's a man like you...
    Your humble son ;-D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you ever so much my son , you are my blessing .
      I will always love you
      Dad

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  2. Jonny Sha Jenny ManJun 18, 2016, 8:25:00 PM

    Happy Father's Day daddy
    Walk a little slower, Daddy, we're following in your footsteps
    And we don't want to fall .Sometimes your steps are very fast,
    Sometimes they are hard to see ,So, walk a little slower, Daddy,
    For you are leading me. Someday when we're all grown up,
    You're what I want to be. Then we will have a little child
    Who'll want to follow us. And we would want to lead just right,
    And know that we was true . So walk a little slower, Daddy,
    For we must follow you. Did we ever say thanks
    for all the toys you mended, games we played, outings to the park,
    and the way you always tried to cheer
    us when we was down?
    Did we ever say thanks for the sacrifices you made
    so we could be involved in so many enriching activities?
    Did we ever say thanks for working so hard to provide for our family?
    Did we ever say thanks for having such faith in us and always being there when I needed you?
    Most of all, did we ever say thanks for caring?
    DADDY, WE LOVE YOU
    Jonny , Sha , Jenny , Man

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    Replies
    1. It's a pleasure and a privilege to have wonderful kids like the four of you .
      I do so enjoy being you father , the smiles and happiness on your faces is thanks enough .
      My kids I love you
      Daddy

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  3. Jonny Sha Jenny ManJun 18, 2016, 8:30:00 PM

    Happy Father's Day Poppa
    To our wonderful grandfather
    Who has given us so much
    You've guided our lives
    With your loving touch
    We can't begin to tell you
    What it means to have a grandfather like you
    The guidance you give us
    Always pulls us through
    We love you very much
    Jonny , Sha , Jenny , Man

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what grandfathers is for , to guide , you with loving hands .
      I love all of you and so thankful you are mine .
      Love all of you Poppa

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  4. Happy Father's Day to my two bad boys .
    dad your gift is on your patio ... My man , you will get your gift tonight Hahahaha ! I am so bad .

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    Replies
    1. Thank you 'Baby' you made this day possible for me . I will collect my gift before morning .
      Girl , how I love you .

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  5. Thank you daughter for the loving words , I gives thanks each day my son married a strong lady to walk beside him .
    And you can cook [Laughing my butt off}

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