Celebrating Fatherhood

From a young age, we remember making cards for our Dad at school, creating clay pots from the local pond and decorating pebbles found on the beach. Each year, on this one day we would make it a day for Dad, to do something as a family and honour him for being our Father.  Sometimes it was a day at the seaside, a special trip to the cinema, or as we grew older a family meal around the table full of reminiscing and laughter. Each is a memory marked in our minds that take us back to the days when we relied on Dad, for lifts home from parties, lifts to parties and a home for parties! As we've grown into young adults, Dad is still there for a lift if needed (we can't all yet drive!) but more as a continued source of stability, advice and support.

Father's Day is celebrated worldwide, often at different times of the year, but the focus of celebration is still about honouring our Father's and Fatherhood. Now over 100 years old, the first observance of Father's Day was held on 5th July, 1908 in Fairmont, West Virginia. Grace Golden Clayton was mourning the loss of her Father, when in December 1907, the Monongah Mining Disaster in nearby Monongah killed 361 men, 250 of them were Fathers, leaving around a thousand fatherless children. Clayton suggested her pastor Robert Thomas Webb to honor all those fathers.