Happy Father’s Day, dads! “The nation’s first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in the state of Washington. However, it was not until 1972—58 years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official—that the day honoring fathers became a national holiday in the United States…
“The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm–perhaps because, as one florist explained, “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.”
“On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers, a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah. The one-time commemoration did not jumpstart an annual holiday as the first Mother’s Day events had earlier that year…
“The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm–perhaps because, as one florist explained, “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.”
“Many men, however, continued to disdain the day. As one historian writes, they “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products–often paid for by the father himself.”1
Here we are now in 2026 and the attitudes of men towards Father’s Day has signific
antly changed. Though Mother’s Day still outperforms Father’s Day in sales and observances, dads enjoy the day and evidence demonstrates that the celebration gets better every year.
In the United States, there are an estimated 72 million dads. Out of this number, 76% are planning to celebrate Father’s Day. In 2025, spending on dads was nearly $24 billion and it is expected to increase again this year.
It’s obviously not about the spending. Instead, it’s about the recognition and following God’s command to “honor thy father and mother.” (Exodus 20:12) Dads, like moms, should be acknowledged.
Dads are given some important instructions in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Though the message is addressed to Israel, it still applies. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: (5) And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (6) And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: (7) And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (8) And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. (9) And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”
May the words spoken about Abraham in Genesis 18:17-19 be able to be said of us. “And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; (18) Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? (19) For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”
1https://www.history.com/articles/fathers-day
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