When did Father’s Day start in the UK?

The date of Father’s Day changes every year as it always takes place on the third Sunday in June.

Father’s Day falls this year Sunday June 19th – So if you don’t have a ticket yet, talk about waiting until the last minute!

Like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day is an annual tradition here in the UK and many other countries around the world, but when did the holiday first start?

When did Father’s Day start?

Father’s Day has been celebrated among European Catholics since the Middle Ages, when it was originally celebrated with a festival on Saint Joseph’s Day (March 19).

An annual day set aside for the celebration of fatherhood in Catholic Europe can be traced back to 1508—although it’s possible that a day honoring fatherhood could have started even earlier.

America was one of the first nations to make Father’s Day an official holiday.

The tradition was started by a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, who was raised by a single father along with her five brothers after their mother died during childbirth.

It is said that Sonora came up with the idea in 1909 after questioning the fact that there was an annual Mother’s Day celebration but no day was set aside to celebrate paternal figures such as her father, a Civil War veteran.

After a campaign started by Sonora in 1910 and millions of Americans began celebrating Father’s Day every June, President Lyndon Johnson finally signed a Presidential Proclamation officially declaring the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day over 50 years later in 1966 Father’s Day declared.

The day then became an enduring national celebration in 1972, thanks to President Richard Nixon.

Like other American celebrations like Halloween, Britain had by then celebrated Father’s Day and also instituted an official day on the third Sunday in June to celebrate father figures and thank the important fathers in our lives.

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