The origin of Father's Day represents a grassroots phenomenon that characterizes American reverence for the family. Although deeply rooted in North American social culture, the popularity—and, some might say, the commercial exploitativeness—of Father's Day has crossed national boundaries to become popular in other countries such as Canada and Britain. Americans and Canadians set aside the third Sunday in June as the day when children show their appreciation and gratitude for their fathers, but the earliest Father's Day celebration on record appears to have been held on July 5, 1908, in a church in Fairmont, West Virginia.

Father's Day was first celebrated in local towns and cities scattered across America. The citizens of Vancouver, Washington claim to have been the first town to officially hold a Father's Day ceremony, beginning in 1912. In 1915, the president of the Uptown Lions Club in Chicago was hailed...