The Sunday News
Peter Matika, Senior Reporter
ON the third Sunday of June every year many countries around the world celebrate fathers. It is on this day that children express thanks to their fathers for all their unconditional love and affection.
Father’s Day is a celebration honouring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Father’s Day is considered as a day to acknowledge the contribution of fathers to individual families and to societies at large.
The observance of Father’s Day helps fathers feel that their contributions are acknowledged by their children.
While Father’s Day is usually celebrated on the third Sunday of June, several countries such as Italy, Croatia, Spain and Portugal celebrate it on 19 March.
Significance of Father’s Day
Father’s Day helps children to come closer to their fathers. Celebration of such days helps children understand the important role their fathers play in their lives. This helps in strengthening father-child relationships and consequently in the emotional development of a child. Children must therefore use the day to reciprocate their love for fathers with all their heart. The best way to do so is by saying “I love you, dad” with a gift or actions.
History
Celebration of Father’s Day, according to history dates back to at least the Middle Ages, and it is observed on 19 March, as the feast day of Saint Joseph, who is referred to as the fatherly Nutritor Domini (“Nourisher of the Lord”) in Catholicism and “the putative father of Jesus” in southern European tradition.
This celebration was brought to the Americans by the Spanish and Portuguese, and in Latin America, Father’s Day is still celebrated on 19 March. The Catholic Church actively supported the custom of a celebration of fatherhood on St Joseph’s day from either the last years of the 14th Century or from the early 15th Century, apparently on the initiative of the Franciscans.
In the Coptic Church, the celebration of fatherhood is also observed on St Joseph’s Day, but the Copts observe this celebration on 20 July. This Coptic celebration may date back to the fifth century.
Today
Today, with the advent of social media many celebrities and people in general post pictures of what and how they celebrate various occasions. Already in the news American rap mogul, Jay Z pledged to bail out incarcerated fathers. By so doing he said he tackles the injustices of the American prison system and the business it propagates in a new op-ed for Time.
In his essay, the rapper writes that since producing Time: The Kalief Browder Story, he has become “obsessed with the injustice of the profitable bail bond industry.”
How will you be spending Father’s Day?
Local celebrities Babongile Skhonjwa and Arthur Evans will today participate in a celebrity cookout battle at Holiday Inn. They will be battling out to showcase their culinary expertise at the hotel.
