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

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

St. Joseph’s Day

Mary and Joseph in a scene from the 2005 film 'The Nativity Story.' — Mary and Joseph in a scene from the 2005 film "The Nativity Story."

Although Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June every year in the United States, other countries, namely a few predominantly Catholic nations, honor dads in March instead.

St. Joseph’s Day, which annually falls on March 19, is a Catholic Church observance that in some nations, especially Italy, is a time to celebrate not just Jesus’ earthly father but all fathers.

The observance has its own traditions and special foods, according to the National Catholic Register, which include setting up an altar or table for St. Joseph, usually in a church or home, that includes a fair amount of food.

“The St. Joseph’s Day altar … contains a plethora of non-meat dishes due to the fact that St. Joseph’s Day always falls during the penitential season of Lent,” explained NCR.

“Beautiful as the St. Joseph’s Day Table is to behold, it is a practical work of art: it is meant to feed not only friends and relatives but, traditionally, to feed the hungry strangers, those who cannot host their own Table either due to poverty or a particularly bad harvest in their family or having run out of food over the wintertime.”