Tomorrow is Father’s Day

Tomorrow we commemorate Father’s Day, a holiday that was introduced by the Americans around the first decade of the last century. Father’s Day started in Washington by Mrs. John R. Dodd as a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran, who was widowed when his wife died after giving birth to her sixth child. Mr Smart raised all six children by himself.

Mrs. Dodd’s tribute to the strength and selflessness that her father had displayed became the model of all future Father‚s Day celebrations. The following year, the first official Father’s Day celebration was held in Spokane, Washington on June 19. In 1924, Pres. Calvin Coolidge made it a national celebration. And in 1966, Pres. Lyndon Johnson issued a proclamation fixing the date of the celebration on the 2nd Sunday of June. That sums the history of tomorrow’s Father’s Day commemoration.

Today, Father’s Day is not only the day we honor our father, but all elderly persons who project a father figure.

Four years after Pres. Coolidge had made Father’s Day a national celebration, Lazaro Francisco, a Tagalog novelist and recipient of the 1970 Republic Cultural Heritage Award and the Presidential Award of Merit, wrote this poem that truly captures the Father’s Day spirit.

Here is an English translation of his poem by Luciano E. Soriano:

1 Father, you Father, are a noble heart

In suffering taken for granted.

Mother’s doting care, therefore sweetens,

Because of a Father who sacrifices!

But a Father, despite his sufferings

Seems to be ignored by his beloved child.

Favor, smile and affection, to Mother are offered,

While poor Father merely gazes!

Father, you Father, your true worth,

Can only be appraised, when you’re already gone!

2 Father, you Father, a noble heart you are

In suffering disregarded.

Mother’s pampering, therefore sweetens,

Because of a Father who sacrifices!

But a Father, even if he suffers

Is seemingly ignored by his beloved child.

Tenderness, smile and affection, to

Mothers are offered,

And poor Father simply stares!

Father, you Father, your true value,

Can only be measured, when you’re no longer around!

Father is the most esteemed word. The best proof is that we use it to refer to God Himself. The Bible itself says, "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." They say that a father’s love is for his children, the children’s love is for their children.

Father’s Day is proof that this is not so. You cannot love your children without loving and honoring their grandfather.