June 14th, Friday | Father's Day's dark past

The date is June 14th, Friday, and there are 200 days left of 2019. Today I’m coming to you from La Serena, Chile. 

In honor of Father’s Day this weekend, we have a bit about the origins of Father’s Day. Before it was nationally observance in the US, Father’s Day was primarily celebrated by Catholics and Christians on March 19th, the feast day of St. Joseph. In Latin America, Father’s Day is generally still celebrated on March 19th. 

Once Mother’s Day became a tradition in the US, it didn’t take long for people to start thinking a day for fathers would be a good idea too. There were a few townships that nearly made it a ‘thing’ but it wasn’t until Sonora Smart Dodd led the charge that a day for dads gained momentum. 

Sonora Dodd was the eldest of six children who were raised by their father after their mother died in childbirth. After hearing a sermon on Mother’s Day about the day, she felt that a father’s day would be a grand idea. She helped to organize a town-wide celebration in Spokane, Washington through the local YMCA and churches on June 19th in 1910. When Dodd moved away from Spokane, the Father’s Day in Spokane faded out. But when she returned in the 1930s, she picked up the charge again locally, and soon, nationally, with the help of eager retailers who were looking to duplicate the commercial success of Mother’s Day for their male-centric products.

The Father’s Day Council campaigned hard for a Father’s Day. The organization was funded by New York Associated Men’s Wear Retailers, who had plenty to gain from the commercialization of a Father’s Day. The Father’s Day Council is now known as Father’s Day/Mother’s Day Council, Inc, still a nonprofit and still surely funded by companies who profit from the day.

Americans were aware of the fact that merchants were leading the charge for Father’s Day and resisted the holiday for several decades.  It wasn’t until a national holiday until Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972. 

A bit of a bummer to know Father’s Day has its roots in materialism. However, as Anna Jarvis noted for Mother’s Day, if you literally wish not to buy into the commercial aspect, the best was to show your appreciation for your parent is a handwritten letter, on any sort of paper. 

And today is the birthday of American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe. We took a closer look at Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe’s most famous work, last week. Stowe was invited to the White House at the onset of the Civil War, and she and her family met President Lincoln. Stowe’s son claimed that Lincoln greeted Harriet by saying “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." But Stowe herself only ever said she had a “really funny interview with the President.”

The Children's Hour

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Between the dark and the daylight,

   When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day's occupations,

   That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me

   The patter of little feet,

The sound of a door that is opened,

   And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,

   Descending the broad hall stair,

Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,

   And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:

   Yet I know by their merry eyes

They are plotting and planning together

   To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,

   A sudden raid from the hall!

By three doors left unguarded

   They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret

   O'er the arms and back of my chair;

If I try to escape, they surround me;

   They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,

   Their arms about me entwine,

Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen

   In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,

   Because you have scaled the wall,

Such an old mustache as I am

   Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,

   And will not let you depart,

But put you down into the dungeon

   In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,

   Yes, forever and a day,

Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,

   And moulder in dust away!

Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.