First and foremost, Happy Father’s Day to all the guys out there. I would have just left it at “Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there” – but, some of you like to spend your weekends exercising poor judgment. You may be a father and not know it. I’m just saying, I know at least two guys who are probably going to have some explaining to do to their wives when a teenager shows up to their door in a couple of years and calls them “Daddy.”

Before I was a dad, I really didn’t understand the need for “Father’s Day.” I love my dad, but I didn’t really think that I needed a holiday to celebrate him. Now that I have a son, this day means a lot to me. (Gee – I write a Daddy Blog. Of course being a father means a lot to me!) However, I started to wonder if I had fallen for yet another emotionally motivated holiday “created by Hallmark.” So, I decided to look up its origin.

To my surprise, this is what I discovered about “Father’s Day” – It was first celebrated in West Virginia on July 5, 1908 as a way to honor 210 men who died in the Monongah Mining Disaster. It became an unofficial holiday in 1910 when a woman from Spokane, Washington actually registered the holiday with her local government. A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913 and three years later President Woodrow Wilson personally petitioned Congress to make it a national holiday. Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized. In 1924, President Coolidge also recommended that the day be a national holiday – but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. President Johnson successfully issued the first proclamation honoring fathers in 1966 and President Nixon signed it into law in 1972.

So there you have it – it’s your duty as an American to celebrate “Father’s Day.” It’s the law!