Similar to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day is a day to honor the contributions that men have given to the society and their family.

The first observance of Mother’s Day, or celebrations honoring mothers and motherhood dates back to way before the rise of Roman Empire. Dads has been overlooked for centuries.

It wasn’t until 1910 when Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Arkansas from Spokane, first decided it was high time to give Dad his due and began to organize and agitate for such a holiday.

Dodd’s own mother had died in her early childhood. This left her father, a Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, to raise her and 5 other kids on his own. In a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909 Dodd thought of her own Father, and what a pity it was that there was not a corresponding holiday to commemorate Fathers.

On 19th June 1910, it was first celebrated in Spokane, Washington. Dodd initially suggested 5th June, which was her father’s birthday, but there was not enough time for the organizers to make make arrangement, and the celebration only happened on the third Sunday of June.

After two failed attempts to formally pass a Bill to recognize the day as a National Holiday, it was finally signed into law in 1972 to make the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day.

This year, 2012, in Singapore and most other countries in the region, we celebrate Father’s Day on the 17th June 2012. (There are certain countries that observe the day to honor their Dads on other days)

Check Out These Gift Ideas For Father’s Day