Christian origins, record spending: 5 interesting facts about Father’s Day

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, June 18, 2023

Becoming a national holiday

President Nixon, with edited transcripts of Nixon White House Tape conversations during the broadcast of his address to the nation. | National Archives & Records Administration

It would take decades for Father’s Day to become a national holiday in the United States, beginning with President Woodrow Wilson observing the day in 1916 and President Calvin Coolidge doing likewise in 1924.

The observance finally became a federal holiday in May 1972 via a proclamation issued by President Richard Nixon, which followed a joint resolution by Congress the month before.

“In fatherhood, we even sense the divine, as the Scriptural writers did who told of all good gifts coming ‘down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’—symbolism so challenging to each man who would give his own son or daughter a life of light without shadow,” read the proclamation, in part.

“Our identity in name and nature, our roots in home and family, our very standard of manhood—all this and more is the heritage our fathers share with us.”