When is Father’s Day 2026? Here’s how the holiday began

Father’s Day 2026 is right around the corner, but you may not need to worry about buying gifts. For history buffs, a lesson on the holiday’s origins might suffice.

Parenthood is honored across two days each year: Mother’s Day in May and Father’s Day in June. Despite their common association, the holidays are quite different in their origins and histories. The annual Father’s Day holiday was first advocated for by a woman — but it would take several decades to be recognized at the federal level. 

Here’s everything you need to know about Father’s Day, and where it came from.

Father’s Day in the U.S. is always celebrated on the third Sunday of June. This year, the holiday falls on June 21.

While Mother’s Day was first celebrated in the 1860s, it took decades for fathers to receive the same attention.

The first documented event to specifically honor fathers was held at a West Virginia church on July 5, 1908. The sermon was dedicated to the memory of 362 men who had died six months earlier in explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company in Monongah. 

The West Virginia sermon was positive, but it didn’t become an annual event because of that ceremony alone.

In 1909, a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd attempted to make a day honoring male parents in Spokane, Washington. Dodd was one of six children raised by a widower, and she hoped to honor her father’s efforts in parenthood.

She gathered support for the new holiday by visiting local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials. Her work was successful, and the first statewide Father’s Day celebration took place in Washington on June 19, 1910.

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge encouraged state governments across the country to observe Father’s Day. It wasn’t until 1972, however, that President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday. Father’s Day earned this level of recognition 58 years after Mother’s Day.  

The holiday was not without its controversy. History.com quotes a historian who wrote that many men “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products — often paid for by the father himself.” 

Sonora Smart Dodd advocated for Father’s Day to honor her own father, who was a Civil War veteran and single parent. While she initially wanted the holiday to be observed annually on June 5 — her father’s birthday — the date was changed so Spokane ministers had more time to prepare their sermons. The date was also adjusted to allow for more time between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

– Staff writer Alexis Simmerman contributed to this report.