Talk:Father's Day

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For other uses, see Father's Day (disambiguation).
Father's Day
Observed by Most countries
Type Historical
Date Varies regionally
Related to Mother's Day

An event mentioned in this article is an August 8 selected anniversary

An event mentioned in this article is a March 19 selected anniversary

Contents

[edit] Why is it on different days in different countries?

Some information about the historical context for this divergence would be nice. LMackinnon 07:47, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Doctor Who

Father's Day is also a Doctor Who episode. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day_%28Doctor_Who%29) Add a link?

  • Is this really necessary? Anybody who's looking for Dr. Who episodes can use the List of Doctor Who serials. Surely there are dozens of TV shows, movies, brands, books, etc named "Father's Day". --Tadhg 13:11, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
    • If that's so, a disambiguation page would be in order. Caesura(t) 00:55, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How many dads?

Isn't it supposed to be "Fathers' Day" (which redirects here)? --Morbid-o 12:57, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

  • That's a good point. I'd also be more inclined to use "Fathers' Day". Six of one, half a dozen of the other, I suppose. Take a look here for an analysis. For now, the article is better off where the dictionary says it should be; Father's Day. --Tadhg 13:11, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
    • If a dictionary gets it wrong, it's even more important that we get it right. It's true that pragmatism should often win over pedantry, but because we would use re-direction there is no chance of anyone not finding the article. I vote for swapping the article with the redirection. 195.248.125.91 14:39, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
  • Depends on whether you have one or more fathers, I only have the one, so it's father's day. --Andy-106 09:15, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
    • I always took Fathers' Day and Mothers' Day to be days in honor of all mothers and fathers, not just a specific father or mother. Nik42 05:44, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
      • Right. The day is not in honour of just your father Andy-106, so if you write "father's" you are wrong. And if it was in honour of just your father, it would be wrong for me to write "father's" because that would refer to my father, who is probably not also your father. 195.248.125.91 14:39, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

To find out how to spell it, just go back to the form used by the person who came up with the holiday: singular possessive: Father's Day. —— "This day is for Father" is the idea. Whose father? It comes from the idea that each person in the majority of the population would honor only one father; yes, it fails to consider that some persons may have more than one person that they consider fathers—but that's how it began. —— I used to think it was plural possessive, Fathers' Day, for honoring all the fathers; but as I understand it, Ms. Dodd and Ms. Jarvis were thinking of a single father and a single mother for each person. —— Think of "Take Your Child to Work" Day: it's not "All of You Multiple Persons, Take Your Children to Work" Day: the name of the holiday addresses a singular person (though it does seem to forget that many persons have more than one children—but, then again, perhaps it's often impractical for one adult to bring multiple kids to work). And the general assumption is that each person has just one father, one mother, &c. —— It's true that there's more than one logical way to approach the spelling of the name; but we should give some credit to the intentions of the person who named it (at least in the U.S.). I am for the 'Oxford' comma ("A, B, and C", as opposed to "A, B and C"); but, when the author of a book chooses to entitle the book X, Y & Z, without the Oxford comman, and with an ampersand instead of and, I should respect the author's choice and imitate it when mentioning the author's book. —— And as to the idea that one person's dad may not be the same as another person's dad, expressed to Andy-106: when you're at work, and you say to your unrelated colleague "Dad is coming to visit this weekend", your colleague understands (1) that you mean your father and (2) that you're not implying that your colleague has the same dad as you. President Lethe 16:48, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Good point. You should always give credit to the author's spelling, even when they're "wrong". Yet then again, it could be thought that Father's Day belongs to more than one individual. How do various governments spell it - that would be another indication of the "correct" spelling. - Matthew238 23:47, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] U.S. date?

There is a list of dates for different countries, but no U.S. date. There is a U.S. History of the holiday section, though, which strikes me as odd. Can we add the date to the list of international dates? Just because it has its own history section doesn't mean it shouldn't have an entry in the dates section.

It's there. Third bullet in the "Date" section. Caesura(t) 01:00, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Father's Day" in Dutch

Purely as a visual pun, I'd like to know how one says "Happy Father's Day" in Dutch. (I know that "vader" means Father, and I'll make a card depicting ... well ... guess who.) Anyone got a translation? ;) --Yar Kramer 05:00, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

A quick Google search gives "Gelukkige Vaderdag". The Dutch Wikipedia entry to which this article is linked is indeed entitled Vaderdag, substantiating that result. Caesura(t) 01:00, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Awesome! Thanks a million. --Yar Kramer 03:08, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Celebrated where?

The little box near the top of the article says Father's Day is celebrated in "most" countries; yet, the article lists its date in not even 20% of the world's countries. Let's get the dates for more countries, or change "most" to "many". President Lethe 05:07, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I just translated a bunch from the French version of the page. I'm sure there could be more merged from articles in other languages. Cnadolski 15:51, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia - nine months before mothers day

I've added the bit of trivia about Fathers Day being nine months before mothers day - I think it's quite amusing (and relevant), but if you don't like it - that's fine! --Gavinio 08:54, 18 June 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Hallmark Holiday

I've heard it was created by Hallmark to sell greeting cards.

(Please, sign your posts on Talk pages.) I've heard the same thing said about Mother's Day. But (1) the American version of Mother's Day was begun by one woman, in Washington State, in 1908; (2) Father's Day was begun by another woman, in West Virginia, in 1910, to copy Mother's Day; and (3) what became Hallmark in 1928 began when a man, in Missouri in 1910, started selling picture postcards. — President Lethe 00:22, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Countries with other celebration dates

Shouldn't we sort it by date instead of by countries? Isn't it easier to read then? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.134.121.18 (talk • contribs).

If you come to an article looking for dates for Father's Day, aren't you going to want to look up a country and find the date for that country? (Unless, of course, you're looking for any excuse to honor your father, so you want to find the nearest occurance of father's day) :-) —Mets501 (talk) 21:21, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I agree. If I were reading about Father's Day and wanted to find out the date in a country, I would hope the list of countries would be alphabetized. The reasons for calendar listing, while clear, seem weaker. Of course, we could make a table with two columns, one sorted by date and one sorted by country. But, forced to choose only one, I would pick alphabetization. Either way, if you're looking for something specific in a hurry, you just use your browser to search the page for the text you want to find. Also, if we went by date, what would we do about the fact that some countries have it on a fixed date (the xth day of a month) while others have it on a variable date (the yth zday of a month)? President Lethe 22:21, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
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