Lemming Tracks: Father's Day, 2009

The Lemming's relaxing a bit more than usual today. It's Father's Day in America, and the Lemming is taking advantage of the holiday.

A few decades ago, Mothers' Day was when mothers went to church to hear what fine people mothers were, and what a good job they did. Father's Day was, not infrequently, when fathers went to church to get bawled out for not being good fathers. That seems to have changed a bit. Can't say that the Lemming is disappointed.

The Lemming's Father's Day has been quite pleasant: I wrote a status report, "Sunday: Father's Day 2009," in another blog.

Father's Day Started in 1909, or 1908, or Some Other Time

Father's Day quite definitely started in

• 1909, when "Mrs. John B. Dodd, of Washington, first proposed the idea of a "father's day" in 1909. Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. William Smart ... was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent.
  "The first Father's Day was observed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane Washington...." (Father's Day on the Net)
• 1908, when "DR. R. Thomas Webb, Minister, Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, authorized the first Father's Day Service in America, at Fairmont, West Virginia on July 5, 1908...." (Reverend D. D. Meighen, June 15, 2005: With assistance from Tom Koon, Former president of the Marion County Historical Society)
• About 4,000 years ago, when Elmusu wished his father good health and long life. (The Holiday Spot)

Whoever wrote that article for The Holiday Spot knew about Catholic celebrations of fatherhood on St. Joseph's Day: March 19. I wrote a little about the Catholic Church in America and Father's Day in another blog. ("Father's Day, 2009 " A Catholic Citizen in America (June 21, 2009))

Today's going to be 'all Father's Day, All the Time' on Apathetic Lemming of the North. Two more posts, and the Lemming will be on other topics.