Happy Fathers Day on Stamps

Father's Day is a holiday honoring one's father, or relevant father figure, as well as fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. The single most common date among world countries is the third Sunday of June, which was founded in the state of Washington, United States, by Sonora Smart Dodd in 1910.

The day is held on various dates across the world, and different regions maintain their own traditions of honoring fatherhood. In some Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on 19 March as Saint Joseph's Day since the Middle Ages. Sikhs celebrate Father's Day (ਪਿਤਾ ਦਿਵਸ) on 29 December, birthday of Guru Gobind Singh. In some Islamic countries, it is set following the months of the Islamic calendar.

Influenced by American culture, the Philippines has been one with the world in commemorating Father’s Day every third Sunday of June. In a presidential proclamation (Proclamation No. 266) by late President Corazon Aquino issued in 1988, she declared the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day and the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day.

This superseded Proclamation No. 2037 of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1980, which declared the first Sunday of December Father’s Day and the first Monday of December as Mother’s Day. In 1988, former President Joseph Estrada moved the dates of celebration of both occasions to the first Monday of December through Proclamation No. 58. However, many Filipinos are still celebrating Father’s Day with the rest of the globe every third Sunday of June, and this year it falls on June 19, 2022.

Father's Day is a recognized public holiday in Lithuania and some parts of Spain and was regarded as such in Italy until 1977. It is a national holiday in Estonia, Samoa, and equivalently in South Korea, where it is celebrated as Parents' Day. The holiday complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Mother's Day and, in the United States, Siblings Day, and Grandparents' Day. 

The history of Father’s Day dates to the 1900s in Spokane, Washington, thanks to an American named Sonora Smart Dodd. After her mother died in childbirth, she and her five brothers were raised by their widowed dad, a civil war veteran.

As she was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon, she came up with the idea of devoting a day to honor her dad, William Smart. The tradition was first celebrated on June 19, 1910—her father’s birth month—in the state of Washington after discussions with the local ministers.

Eventually, it garnered the support of former US Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge. Then in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a proclamation to officially recognize Father’s Day, held every third Sunday in June. Finally, a permanent national observance of the tradition was instituted by President Richard Nixon in 1972.


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