Fathers' Day

The 18th of June was an important day called 'Fathers' Day', a celebration that did not exist in antiquity. A commercial day, but it is the day that allows us to remember that the father is the pillar on which the whole family leans.

In 1908 there was an explosion in a coal (kömür) mine in the state of West Virginia in the United States, and 362 men died in the explosion. In the mining town they held a commemoration for the fathers who died in the explosion. It was this event that made a girl of 16 think of fixing one day a year to be called 'Fathers' Day'. The girl's name was Sonora Smart Dodd, daughter of a worker who collected the coal that fell on the roads when the coal was carried from the mine to other places. The worker was called William Jackson Smart, father of 14 children, twice married and twice widowed. He took on the care of his own children and of those who came with the second wife. William was appreciated by the people around him not only as a father but also as an affectionate mother to the children.

So this girl, Sonora Smart Dodd, wished to honour her father, who had shown such devotion to her and her brothers and sisters, and in 1910 she set about having one day a year recognized as 'Fathers' Day'. She worked some 60 years to have this wish accepted by the authorities. Sonora was at the same time a complete artist, a poet and a writer of children's books. It was in 1972, 6 years before Sonora died at 96, that President Nixon signed the decree to celebrate 'Fathers' Day' on the third Sunday of June. In Turkey we have the same date for this celebration. In certain countries of Europe and Latin America this day falls in March, on the Catholic feast of Saint Joseph.

One thing that is much criticized is that in many places this day has been commercialized and is known as a day for buying and selling gifts — criticisms also made about 'Mothers' Day'. But be that as it may, for me, my children are the fathers of my grandchildren and at the same time my parents, because at our age we have become children again and we need our children to be our parents.