While dads are worth celebrating every day, many countries around the world dedicate one day a year to showing fathers how loved and appreciated they are.
However, the date for Father’s Day varies globally. In the US and many other parts of the world, Father’s Day is marked on the third Sunday in June. This year, it will be celebrated on June 19. In the UAE, it's celebrated on June 21, to coincide with Midsummer's day.
So why is Father’s Day celebrated differently across the world and where did the tradition begin?
The history of Father’s Day
While Father’s Day did not become an official holiday in the US until the 1970s, the first event to honour fathers was held in 1908, organised by Grace Golden Clayton in Fairmont, West Virginia. Clayton organised a special event for the children of the victims of the 1907 Monongah Mining Disaster, which killed 361 men, 250 of which were fathers.
A year later, a second celebration of fathers was organised by Sonora Smart Dodd, who lost her mother at the age of 16, leaving her father to raise her and her five siblings.
In 1909, after listening to a Mother's Day sermon at the Central Methodist Episcopal Church, Dodd decided she wanted to give fathers the same recognition, and along with the local YMCA and the Ministerial Association of Spokane, she began a campaign to have the day officially recognised.
The following year, the first Father’s Day celebration was held at the YMCA in Spokane on June 19, with a number of towns across the US later following suit.
Support for the day quickly grew across the states, leading to president Calvin Coolidge pressuring state governments to mark the celebration in 1924.
However, it was president Lyndon Johnson who issued the first presidential proclamation honouring fathers in 1966, declaring the third Sunday in June Father’s Day. Six years later, President Richard Nixon established the day as a national holiday, writing it into US law.
Several countries joined the US in celebrating Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June, including the UK, Canada, Chile, France, Greece, Georgia and India.
Other Father’s Day celebrations around the world
While China now celebrates Father’s Day in line with the UK and the US, it was originally held on August 8, as the Mandarin word for eight is “ba”, making the eighth day of the eighth month “ba ba”, which is a term used colloquially in the country for “daddy”.
In Australia, Father’s Day is marked on the first Sunday of September, which coincides with the first Sunday of spring, while in Germany, Father’s Day, or Vatertag, is marked on a Thursday, 40 days after Easter.
In Brazil, Father’s Day is marked on the second Sunday of August, chosen in honour of Saint Joachim, the patron saint of fathers, who according to Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox traditions, was the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
In Italy, Bolivia and Croatia, Father’s Day is marked on March 19 to coincide with the Roman Catholic celebration of Saint Joseph’s Day.
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
Al Jazira's foreign quartet for 2017/18
Romarinho, Brazil
Lassana Diarra, France
Sardor Rashidov, Uzbekistan
Mbark Boussoufa, Morocco
Hotel Data Cloud profile
Date started: June 2016
Founders: Gregor Amon and Kevin Czok
Based: Dubai
Sector: Travel Tech
Size: 10 employees
Funding: $350,000 (Dh1.3 million)
Investors: five angel investors (undisclosed except for Amar Shubar)
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 247hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm from 1,500-3,500rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 7.8L/100km
Price: from Dh94,900
On sale: now
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
if you go
The flights
Fly direct to Kutaisi with Flydubai from Dh925 return, including taxes. The flight takes 3.5 hours. From there, Svaneti is a four-hour drive. The driving time from Tbilisi is eight hours.
The trip
The cost of the Svaneti trip is US$2,000 (Dh7,345) for 10 days, including food, guiding, accommodation and transfers from and to Tbilisi or Kutaisi. This summer the TCT is also offering a 5-day hike in Armenia for $1,200 (Dh4,407) per person. For further information, visit www.transcaucasiantrail.org/en/hike/
