Dr. James Surrell, Journal columnist

Recently, on May 9, we celebrated our annual Mother’s Day, and on June 20, 2021, our annual Father’s Day will also be celebrated.

Both are very popular annual celebrations, and they both represent a fitting tribute to the millions of wonderful moms and dads here in the U.S.

Today, let us again review a brief history of both these special Sundays that were created to pay tribute to so many wonderful mothers and fathers. So many of us owe so much to our dedicated mothers and fathers.

Mother’s Day History — Anna Jarvis is recognized as the Mother of Mother’s Day, as she is historically known to be the lady who worked so very hard to bestow honor on all mothers. During her childhood, Anna Jarvis got the inspiration of celebrating Mother’s Day from her own mother, Mrs. Anna Marie Reeves-Jarvis. Mrs. Reeves-Jarvis passed away in 1905. Her loving daughter, Anna Jarvis, never forgot her mother’s strong desire of having a Mother’s day in the United States.

Anna Jarvis started her personal celebration of Mother’s Day by sending carnation flowers to her church in Grafton, West Virginia, to honor her mother. Anna Jarvis, along with many others who supported her Mother’s Day efforts, wrote letters to people in positions of power lobbying for the official declaration of a U.S. Mother’s Day holiday. Their persistent efforts paid off. By 1911, Mother’s Day was celebrated in almost every state in the Union. Then, on May 8, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. 

Father’s Day History — The first celebration of Father’s Day in the United States was over 100 years ago when it was first observed on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia. For several years it remained a local event in West Virginia. Several years later, in 1910, a Father’s Day celebration was held in Spokane, Washington, at the local YMCA by  Sonora Smart Dodd, who was born in Arkansas. Ms. Dodd promoted the Father’s Day celebration in Spokane to honor her father, William Jackson Smart, a civil war veteran, who was a single parent who raised his six children there in Spokane.

As more and more local communities started to celebrate Father’s Day, there was interest in making it an official nationally recognized event. The first bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. Many years went by, and then, in 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith strongly supported making Father’s Day a National event. She felt it was inappropriate not to have a Father’s Day celebration in the same manner that Mother’s Day had previously been made a national event. She strongly stated that it made much more sense for our nation to honor both of our parents. Subsequently, in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, the third Sunday in June was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.

Let us now conclude this brief review of these two very special days with some Mother’s Day and Father’s Day humor.

≤ Why does Mother’s Day come before Father’s Day? Because it should always be “Ladies First”.

≤ Why is your computer so smart? Because it wisely listens to its “mother” board.

≤ What did the digital clock say to its mother? “Look, Ma! No hands!”

≤ The son asked his Dad if he could watch TV while he was doing his homework. Dad thought about it, and then replied, “Sure, as long as you don’t turn it on.”

≤ What did Baby Corn ask Momma Corn on Father’s Day? “Where’s Pop Corn?”

≤ What did Daddy Buffalo say to his son when he left to go to school? Bison.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Jim Surrell is the author of “The ABC’s For Success In All We Do” and the “SOS (Stop Only Sugar) Diet” books.Contact Dr. Surrell by email at sosdietdoc@gmail.com.