In Search Of Modern-Day Sonora, Founder Of Father’s Day, In This Part Of The World -By Isaac Asabor

It is not an exaggeration to say that it is not today that fathers began to face adversities, troubles, and afflictions in life. Given the situation faced by fathers from immemorial, it is little wonder that the Bible in Psalms 142 verses 4 to 5 say, “I looked, but there was no man that would know me; refuge failed me, no man cared for my soul”.

Sometimes, fathers are deeply troubled, lonely, and overwhelmed by desperate situations due to the pressure being mounted on them by their dependents with each passing day.

However, given the somewhat natural challenges that every man, specifically the fatherfaces, it cannot be wrong to opine that under such that they may feel lonely and the in dire need of human comfort and care.

In fact, fathers are wont to experience financial difficulties that it will not be out of place to say that they need to be cared for and loved by their wives, children, relatives, neighbours, colleagues, and what have you.

But alas! Despite the numerous challenges which fathers face, the advocacies that culminated in the formation of Mother’s Dayin 1908 were pushed by Anna Jarvis ostensibly not bothering to complement it with Father’s Day Mother’s Day, and it remained as a holiday that is celebrated on the second Sunday of May every year. It started in the United States. Mother’s Day was first made to celebrate a person’s own mother. Now it is made to celebrate all mothers and motherhood in general. It is celebrated at different times in different countries. In the United States of America. In celebrating the Day, Children can make cards and a lot of other things for their mothers.

Unarguably not pleased that Mothers were celebrated by their children with each passing year, specifically since 1908 when Mother’s Day became a holiday in the United States of America, Sonora Smart Dodd, felt that fathers deserved their own special day of recognition, so she began a campaign to establish Father’s Day. Dodd’s campaign was successful, and the first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane on June 19, 1910. The holiday spread quickly throughout the United States, and it was officially recognized by the U.S. Congress in 1972.

As gathered Sonora was reputed to be “Daddy’s Girl” as she was raised by a widower, William Smart, who raised her and five brothers after their mother died during childbirth.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the whole world is today celebrating Father’s Day but not a few people are ignorant of the personality behind the holiday.  Sonora Smart Dodd was born in Sebastian County in Arkansas in 1982 and her mother died when she was 16.

While listening to a Mother’s Day sermon with her father at the Central Methodist Church in 1909, Sonora was bothered that there was not a day to honour her civil war veteran father who raised her and five younger brothers alone.

She wanted the celebration to be held on June 5, her father’s birthday, but planning difficulties pushed the first Father’s Day celebration to Sunday, June 19, 1910.

As gathered, she started the tradition to honour, among others, and as her idea gained momentum across the country, two National Father’s Day committees were formed, one in Virginia in 1921 and one in New York City in 1936.

President Woodrow Wilson sanctioned the idea of celebrating Father’s Day in 1913 and visited Spokane to join the celebration in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea in 1924, as well.

Unarguably riding on the wings of the advocacy which Sonora elicited, US Senator Margaret Chase Smith from Maine in 1957, introduced a bill to create a federally proclaimed day writing: “Either we honour both our parents, mother, and father, or let us desist from honouring either one. But to single out just one of our two parents and omit the other is the most grievous insult imaginable.”

Sequel to the force generated by the bill, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day in 1966. President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of the day in 1972.

At this juncture, it is expedient to ask, “Do children love their fathers that much to embark on an advocacy to the extent of stepping on toes, and even becoming renegades?

The reason for the foregoing line of thought cannot be farfetched as facts gathered from an article titled, “The Woman Who Founded Father’s Day Was a Renegade, Great-Granddaughter Says”, published in the online edition of US News dated June 18, 2023, speaks volumes.

In making the disclosure the online platform reported, “I take a great deal of pride in that renegade spirit that she clearly had,” said Roddy, marketing director for a large Los Angeles company”.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to say that there is a school of thought that holds the notion that Sonora was highly motivated to embark on the advocacy for being a “Daddy’s Girl”.

In the most general sense, the term “Daddy’s Girl” usually means that a girl is extremely close to her father. In this context, the girl prefers her father’s company over everyone else’s. She tries both to mimic and to please him. The closeness in the relationship, coupled with the daughter’s desire to please, implies that the father has a large amount of psychological control over his female child and that he has an unspoken ownership of her. The dad usually does not intend to gain this control or for the ownership to develop. In many cases, he might not even perceive that it is central to the relationship, as he typically is extremely kind to and protective of his daughter.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to say that it is widely believed that daughters naturally crave connection with their fathers and that they especially cherish emotional and physical affection from their fathers. In fact, according to research, when girls and dads have a stronger connection, daughters do better in life on a number of different levels.

Despite the foregoing philosophy, Father’s Day, being the day when fathers worldwide are honored for their contribution to the upkeep of the nuclear family, and to honor fathers who are single parents, is a day when the relevance of fatherhood and the paternal bond of the man, known as the pillar of the family, is well appreciated. However, in this part of the world, there is a need to have children in a manner that is reminiscent of that of Sonora in making advocacies for their fathers as Nigerian fathers are lonely, neglected, and groaning, unlike the mothers who are over serenaded and celebrated with each passing second Sunday in the month of May. To aptly put it, we are in search of modern-day Sonora, the founder of Father’s Day, in this part of the world.