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Father’s Day $ Table of Contents

Father’s Day # Actions

holiday
By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

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Top Questions

When is Father’s Day? %

Where did Father’s Day come from? %

How is Father’s Day celebrated? %

Why is Father’s Day in June? %

Is Father’s Day celebrated

internationally? &

Father’s Day is celebrated all around the

world, even though it originated in the
United States. Many countries celebrate
it on the third Sunday in June, while
others observe the holiday at different
times of the year.

Father’s Day, in the United States,

holiday (third Sunday in June) to honour
fathers. Credit for originating the holiday
is generally given to Sonora Smart Dodd
of Spokane, Washington, whose father, a
Civil War veteran, raised her and her five
siblings after their mother died in
childbirth. She is said to have had the
idea in 1909 while listening to a sermon
on Mother’s Day, which at the time was
becoming established as a holiday. Local
religious leaders supported the idea, and
the first Father’s Day was celebrated on
June 19, 1910, the month of the birthday
of Dodd’s father. In 1924 U.S. Pres.
Calvin Coolidge gave his support to the
observance, and in 1966 Pres. Lyndon B.
Johnson issued a proclamation that
recognized the day. It became a national
holiday in 1972, when Pres. Richard
Nixon signed legislation designating the
third Sunday of June as Father’s Day.

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Although it was originally largely a

religious holiday, Father’s Day has been
commercialized with the sending of
greeting cards and the giving of gifts.
Some observe the custom of wearing a
red rose to indicate that one’s father is
living or a white rose to indicate that he is
deceased. Other males—for example,
grandfathers or uncles who have assumed
parenting roles—are often also honoured
on the day. Some Roman Catholics have
continued to observe the feast day of St.
Joseph, on March 19, as a tribute to
fathers.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

This article was most recently revised and

updated by Amy Tikkanen.

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Lantern Festival # Actions

holiday
Alternate titles: Yuan Xiao Festival
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Lantern Festival, also called Yuan

Xiao Festival, holiday celebrated in
China and other Asian countries that
honours deceased ancestors on the 15th
day of the first month (Yuan) of the lunar
calendar. The Lantern Festival aims to
promote reconciliation, peace, and
forgiveness. The holiday marks the first
full moon of the new lunar year and the
end of the Chinese New Year (see Lunar
New Year). During the festival, houses
are festooned with colourful lanterns,
often with riddles written on them; if the
riddle is answered correctly, the solver
earns a small gift. Festival celebrations
also include lion and dragon dances,
parades, and fireworks. Small glutinous
rice balls filled with fruits and nuts, called
yuanxiao or tangyuan, are eaten during
the festival. The round shape of the balls
symbolizes wholeness and unity within
the family.

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Lantern Festival

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The Lantern Festival may originate as far

back as the Han dynasty (206 BCE to 220
CE), when Buddhist monks would light
lanterns on the 15th day of the lunar year
in honour of the Buddha. The rite was
later adopted by the general population
and spread throughout China and other
parts of Asia. A legend concerning the
festival’s origin tells the tale of the Jade
Emperor (You Di), who became angered
at a town for killing his goose. He
planned to destroy the town with fire, but
he was thwarted by a fairy who advised
the people to light lanterns across the
town on the appointed day of destruction.
The emperor, fooled by all the light,
assumed the town was already engulfed
in flames. The town was spared, and in
gratitude the people continued to
commemorate the event annually by
carrying colourful lanterns throughout
the town.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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updated by Adam Augustyn.

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Walpurgis Night # Actions

holiday
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Walpurgis Night, a traditional holiday

celebrated on April 30 in northern
Europe and Scandinavia. In Sweden
typical holiday activities include the
singing of traditional spring folk songs
and the lighting of bonfires. In Germany
the holiday is celebrated by dressing in
costumes, playing pranks on people, and
creating loud noises meant to keep evil at
bay. Many people also hang blessed
sprigs of foliage from houses and barns to
ward off evil spirits, or they leave pieces
of bread spread with butter and honey,
called ankenschnitt, as offerings for
phantom hounds.

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In Finland Walpurgis Night and May Day

are effectively merged into a single
celebration that is usually referred to as
Vappu and that is among the country’s
most important holidays. Initially,
Walpurgis Night was celebrated by the
Finnish upper class. Then, in the late 19th
century, students (most notably
engineering students) took up its
celebration. Today merrymaking begins
on the evening of April 30, often
augmented with the drinking of alcoholic
beverages, particularly sparkling wine.
The carnival-like festivities carry over to
the next day, frequently taking on a
family dimension, as friends and relatives
picnic in parks among balloons and
consume sima, a homemade low-alcohol
(and sometimes not so low-alcohol)
mead.

The origins of the holiday date back to

pagan celebrations of fertility rites and
the coming of spring. After the Norse
were Christianized, the pagan celebration
became combined with the legend of St.
Walburga, an English-born nun who lived
at Heidenheim monastery in Germany
and later became the abbess there.
Walburga was believed to have cured the
illnesses of many local residents.
Walburga is traditionally associated with
May 1 because of a medieval account of
her being canonized upon the translation
of her remains from their place of burial
to a church circa 870. Although it is likely
that the date of her canonization is purely
coincidental to the date of the pagan
celebrations of spring, people were able
to celebrate both events under church law
without fear of reprisal.

This article was most recently revised and

updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.

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Cinco de Mayo # Actions

Mexican history
Alternate titles: Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla
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Cinco de Mayo, (Spanish: “Fifth of

May”) also called Anniversary of the
Battle of Puebla, holiday celebrated in
parts of Mexico and the United States in
honour of a military victory in 1862 over
the French forces of Napoleon III.

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When in 1861 Mexico declared a

temporary moratorium on the repayment
of foreign debts, English, Spanish, and
French troops invaded the country. By
April 1862 the English and Spanish had
withdrawn, but the French, with the
support of wealthy landowners, remained
in an attempt to establish a monarchy
under Maximilian of Austria and to curb
U.S. power in North America. On May 5,
1862, a poorly equipped mestizo and
Zapotec force under the command of
General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated
French troops at the Battle of Puebla,
southeast of Mexico City; about 1,000
French troops were killed. Although the
fighting continued and the French were
not driven out for another five years, the
victory at Puebla became a symbol of
Mexican resistance to foreign
domination. The city, which was later
renamed Puebla de Zaragoza, is the site
of a museum devoted to the battle, and
the battlefield itself is maintained as a
park.

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Cinco de Mayo

The day is celebrated in the state of

Puebla with parades, speeches, and
reenactments of the 1862 battle, though it
is not much noticed in most of the rest of
the country. In the mid-20th-century
United States, the celebration of Cinco de
Mayo became among Mexican
immigrants a way of encouraging pride in
their Mexican heritage. Critics observed
that enthusiasm for the holiday
celebration did not take off with a
broader demographic until it was
explicitly linked with the promotion of
Mexican alcoholic beverages and that
many U.S. festivities tended to both
perpetuate negative stereotypes of
Mexicans and promote excessive
drinking.

Cinco de Mayo is not to be confused with

Mexican Independence Day, which falls
on September 16. The latter holiday was
established in 1810, some 50 years before
the Battle of Puebla occurred.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

This article was most recently revised and

updated by Amy Tikkanen.

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