Celebrating Father’s Day

Since I was born in Russia, I did not celebrate fatherhood or father’s day for many years until recently. There is no such a holiday in Russia, even though people celebrate the day of all men in February. But a couple of years ago after I moved to the States and became a mother I got a reason to learn more about this day as well as my husband. I was curious to find out more about the history of father’s day and decided to share with you what I found out. I also found out some nice ways to surprise your dad through the MyHeritage site so find out more about that below.

The idea of a ‘father’s day’ came about in Washington in 1909. It was Mrs Dodd who was seeking to honor her father, William Smart in a special way. William Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife

died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. Impressed by her father’s sacrifices for his children and inspired by the founder of Mother’s day Anna Jarvis’s efforts to establish Mother’s Day, Mrs Dodd decided to try to organise a father’s day. She initially suggested June 5, her father’s birthday, but she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and so the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June, which it is still today.

The first June Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, WA. At about the same time in various towns and cities across American other people were beginning to celebrate a “father’s day” and thus it started to become such a tradition that The US presidents started to recognise it. First President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national father’s Day in 1924 and then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father’s Day.

Now people in more than 50 countries honor their fathers on this day. As my family started to celebrate father’s day, I always try to do something special for my husband. In fact, for many years he wanted us to go camping on this day, but I am a hotel person and the idea of sleeping in a tent and bugs surrounding me is horrifying. However, I love my husband so much that I decided to find positive sides of camping. After talking to some of my friends, we all decided to go camping and rafting to Colorado..because after all it is father’s Day! I know my husband is very excited and could not wish for a better present!

If you want to treat your father with something special on the site, here are a few ideas though, a premium subscription may be a great way to bring him closer to the family, as it means he’ll be able to store more photo’s online, add more people to the tree and have access to premium features such as all in one charts. Another nice feature is our new slideshow, which will allow you to show all your photo’s to your dad! Find the “slideshow” link in the sidebar of your family home page or on the top navigation in the section “photos & videos”. Once you clicked it you will be seeing the recent photos from your family site. It is a presentation that pans over your still images and zooms into them while fading from one image to another, which gives you the impression of a movie!

Dear fathers, I wish all of you a wonderful holiday and may all your wishes come true this father’s Day!