Where did Mother’s Day and Father’s Day originate?
If you love your Mum and Dad, there’s no feeling quite like making your parents feel loved on their special day. Whilst the dates may differ depending on what country you’re in – e.g., in America, Mother’s Day is May 12th, but in the UK, Mother’s Day is March 10th – almost all countries have a day to celebrate their mother’s and father’s.
But where did it all start, and do any countries not celebrate it…?
Frank E. Hering, an American football coach at the University of Notre Dame during the 1890s, is recognised by the Fraternal Order of Eagles as the “Father of Mother’s Day”.
In 1904, Hering was said to have asked the Fraternal Order of Eagles to “support setting aside one day in the year as a nationwide memorial to the memory of mothers and motherhood”.
Whilst Hering created the idea, Anna Jarvis was said to have really drove the idea home, and is said to be the ‘Mother of Mother’s Day’. According to a few sources, her mother had “frequently expressed a desire to” establish a Mother’s Day.
In 1908, Jarvis held a special ceremony to “honour her mother and all mothers at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church” which marked the first “official observance of Mother’s Day.”
On May 9th, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson, made Mother’s Day official, by announcing there would be a “national observance” which would be help every year on the 2nd Sunday of May.
But what about Father’s Day!?
In 1909, in Spokane, Washington, a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, tried to establish Father’s Day – obviously after hearing about the Mother’s Day. It’s said she “went up to local churches, the YMCA… to drum up support for her idea”.
And she was successful. On June 19th 1910, Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day. However, it wasn’t until 1972, that it became a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law.
A whole 62 years later…!