Happy Fathers Day to Dads everywhere!

As the Dads of the world unwrap their presents of ties and slippers I thought I would give you some background to the day!

Father's Day is a day to celebrate fatherhood and occurs in almost every country of the world, however many different days are chosen to celebrate it. In the UK and US, Japan and many countries in Europe it is celebrated on the third sunday in June. This date was chosen rather by accident.

The celebration was suggested by Mrs Sonora Smart Dodd whose father, Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, had as a single parent raised his six children. She wanted the anniversary of his death, June 5th to be chosen, but did not leave enough time for a celebration to be organised and so the 3rd sunday in June became the date. In many countries it is celebrated on 19th March which is St. Joseph's day, while other dates chosen include Korea which celebrates it on 8th May, in Scandanavia it is celebrated on the second sunday in November and in Thailand December 5th is chosen , being the King's birthday.

A few Dad quotes:

• "A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again." - Enid Bagnold
• "One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters." - English Proverb
• "To be a successful father . . . there's one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don't look at it for the first two years." -Ernest Hemingway
• "I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." - Sigmund Freud
• "Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young,
  Who loved thee so fondly as he?
  He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue,
  And joined in thy innocent glee." - Margaret Courtney
• "If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right." - Bill Cosby
• "Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!" - Lydia M Child