Father's Day is a manufactured moment. So is Christmas morning, wedding rings, and saying "bless you" when someone sneezes. We just pretend some are “real.”
It began back in 1910 in Spokane, Washington with Sonora Smart Dodd. Her Civil War veteran father had raised six kids alone. Inspired by the growing popularity of Mother’s Day, she thought, “Why not dads?”
The first Father’s Day was celebrated that June with church sermons and roses. It was simple, sweet, and in large part rejected.
Nobody was sold on the idea. Men thought it was too sentimental. Real men didn’t need flowers or appreciation. Newspapers poked fun. Even Congress shot it down in 1913, worried it would become too commercial. For decades, Father’s Day lingered in holiday purgatory.
Meanwhile, Mother’s Day was thriving. Thanks to social activist Anna Jarvis’s relentless campaigning, it became a national holiday in 1914. But Jarvis quickly grew to hate what it became, calling it a “Hallmark holiday.” Ironically, and a little tragically, she spent her last years broke and bitter, filing petitions to end the very holiday she created.
Father’s Day took a bit longer to catch on.
The thing about memes is they don't spread because someone forces them to. They spread because they make connections that weren’t there before.
Nobody said, "The store downtown says we have to honor Dad now" and voila. The idea just sat there, waiting. Then retailers noticed they were missing a whole demographic of guilt-driven gift purchases. During the Great Depression, men's wear companies formed the "Father's Day Council" to push socks, pipes, and neckties.
But it wasn’t purely cynical. It gave families permission to buy Dad the basics he actually needed but wouldn't buy himself during a time when men were reluctant to spend money on themselves.
The holiday gained even more momentum a decade later, when a lot of fathers ended up fighting in WWII, making them far more appreciated back home.
By 1972, Nixon made it official.
While it became a thing in the US, it didn’t become universally popular.
Germany has Männertag (Men’s Day), which is less about heartfelt cards and more about beer wagons and hiking. Italy and France mostly ignore it, preferring saints’ days for paternal appreciation.
Scandinavians treat it as a minor footnote. Even in the U.K., where it’s technically observed, many still grumble that it’s just a made-up excuse to sell cards and novelty mugs.
The meme only spread where it resonated. It never took off where it didn’t. This is how all ideas spread – not through force but through fit.
So, is Father’s Day a “real” holiday? It’s about as authentic as Santa’s red suit (thanks, Coca-Cola).
But that doesn’t mean it’s worthless. That’s the thing about memes. They don't create a life of their own. They make the life we already have more liveable.
Whether you go all out this weekend or just send a text, remember that the holiday might be manufactured, but what you do with it doesn't have to be. |
|
