Coffee in bed, a recited verse, a craft or drawing: Sunday we celebrate Father’s Day. Why actually?
Door: Anna Jacobs“Pamper Father!” it read on the billboard that the Dutch Catholic Association had made for cigar shops on the occasion of ‘the Father’s Day’ on October 2, 1937. That was the first year that Father’s Day was celebrated in the Netherlands. It was the Dutch cigar farmers who sensed commercial opportunities and initiated this day. A box of cigars was turned into the ultimate Father’s Day gift and mayors were handed out cigar boxes throughout the country.
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In 1948 the Nederlandsche Bond van Herenmode Retailen decided to move Father’s Day ‘in imitation of America’ to the third Sunday in June. According to them, Father’s Day couldn’t be too close to Sinterklaas and Christmas, May was already reserved for the mothers and so it was June. The third Sunday of June became Father’s Day.
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Four in ten Dutch people want to abolish Father’s Day.
Single father
Father’s Day is not originally a Dutch tradition. The first celebration of Father’s Day took place on June 19 in 1910 in Spokane, Washington. Sanora Dodd, a young woman who, along with her five brothers, was raised alone by their father, took the initiative. After attending a Mother’s Day service at the church in 1909, Dodd convinced the Spokane Ministerial Association to introduce Father’s Day as well. Father’s Day was not officially recognized as a holiday in America until 1972, under the presidency of Richard Nixon.
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Celebrating a father figure has been happening for many hundreds of years. Since the ninth century, Catholic Europe has celebrated the feast day of Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary and the foster father (‘nurse father’) of Jesus, on March 19. There are still countries that observe this date for celebrating Father’s Day. In Germany, Ascension Day and Father’s Day are celebrated at the same time.
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Cancel Father’s Day?
Recent research by Panelwizard among a thousand Dutch people shows that four out of ten Dutch people want to abolish Father’s Day. 40 percent of the Dutch think it’s fine if Father’s Day is abolished and 18 percent say they never buy a gift on principle. More than 32 percent of the interviewed men also find Mother’s Day more important than Father’s Day, 9 percent of the mothers share this opinion.
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