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| How did Father's Day begin and how is it celebrated around the world? |
This year, Father's Day is being celebrated worldwide on the third Sunday of June.
On this day we pay tribute and give gifts to fathers, or father-like figures such as grandfathers. But how did this day begin?
How did Father's Day begin?
Mother's Day has been celebrated for hundreds of years, but the history of celebrating Father's Day is not very old.
The celebration of this day probably originated in America and there are many stories about how it got started.
The best-known and most common of these is that it was started in Washington by a woman named Sonora Louise Smart.
The family was raised by his father after his mother died giving birth to their sixth child.
In the year 1909, Sonora heard a talk about Mother's Day in the church and it was then that he thought that Father's Day should also be celebrated.
A few local religious leaders agreed with his idea and it is believed that June 19, 1910, was the first unofficial celebration of Father's Day. After which in 1966, President Landon B. Johnson decided that Father's Day would be celebrated on the third Sunday of June every year.
Six years later, US President Richard Nixon signed this law.
How is Father's Day celebrated around the world?
In Thailand, December 5 is celebrated as the birthday of the highly revered late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, considered the father of the nation in Thailand.
It is tradition to wear yellow clothes on this day.
Flowers are also offered to fathers and grandfathers in Thailand on this day, but this tradition is no longer popular.
In Mexico, Father's Day is celebrated every year on the third Sunday of June.
Every year on this day, a thirteen-mile-long race called the Father's Day Race is held in Mexico City and children participate with their fathers.
Instead of spending time with their kids on Father's Day, dads in Germany often go hiking in groups and sometimes go on wagon rides with lots of wine, drinks, and food.
Children in Nepal give sweets to their fathers as gifts, in return, the fathers give prayers to their sons and daughters.
People whose fathers have passed away go to religious places and pray in their memory.
Father's Day in France was traditionally a Catholic holiday but was reintroduced in the 1900s for commercial reasons.
Now all kinds of gifts are given on this day including roses.
In France, it is tradition to give red roses to your father if he is alive, but if your father is dead, white roses are placed on his grave.