Father's Day is parenting, and to honor and commemorate fathers and forefathers. Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves gift-giving, and special dinners to fathers and family-oriented activities. In 2008, it was celebrated on June 15 in many countries. In 2009, it will be celebrated on June 21 in many countries.

The first observance of Father's Day is believed to have been held on July 5 1908 in a church located in Fairmont, West Virginia, by Dr. Robert Webb of West Virginia at the Central United Methodist Church of Fairmont.

Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd of Washington thought independently of the holiday one Sunday in 1909 while listening to a Mother's Day sermon at the Central Methodist Episcopal Church at Spokane, and she arranged a tribute for her father in June 19, 1910. She was the first to solicit the idea of having an official Father's Day observance.

The Associated Men's Wear Retailers formed a National Father's Day Committee in New York City in the 1930's, which was renamed in 1938 to National Council for the Promotion of Father's Day and incorporated several trade groups more. This council had the goals of legitimizing the holiday in the mind of the people and managing the holiday as a commercial event in a more systematic way, in order to boost the sales during the holiday. This council always had the support of Dodd, who had no problem with the commercialization of the holiday and endorsed several promotions to increase the amount of gifts. In this aspect she can be considered the opposite of Anna Jarvis, who actively opposed all commercialization of Mother's Day.

Dates of Father's Day Observation Internationally...

The officially recognized date of Father's Day varies from country to country. This section lists some significant examples, in order of date of observance.

Islamic calendar
Occurrence	Dates	Country
Rajab	June 18, 2008	Iran
Gregorian calendar
Occurrence	Dates	Country
February 23		Russia (Defender of the Fatherland Day)*
March 19		Bolivia Honduras	Italy (Festa del Papà) Liechtenstein	Andorra (Dia del Pare) Portugal (Dia do Pai) Spain (Día del Padre, Dia del Pare, Día do Pai) Macao (Dia do Pai)
May 5		Romania (Ziua Barbatului)
May 8		South Korea (Parents' Day)
Ascension Day	May 1, 2008 May 21, 2009	Germany
First Sunday of June	June 1, 2008 June 7, 2009	Lithuania
June 5 (Constitution Day)		Denmark
Second Sunday of June	June 8, 2008 June 14, 2009	Austria Belgium
Third Sunday of June	June 21, 2009 June 20, 2010 June 19, 2011 June 17, 2010	Argentina Antigua Bahamas Bangladesh Barbados Belize Bulgaria Canada Chile People's Republic of China** Colombia Costa Rica	Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Ecuador France Ghana Greece Guyana Hong Kong Hungary India	Ireland Jamaica Japan Malaysia Malta Mauritius Myanmar Mexico Netherlands	Pakistan Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Puerto Rico (15 June 2008 was third Sunday of June) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Singapore Slovakia South Africa Sri Lanka Switzerland Trinidad and Tobago Turkey United Kingdom United States	Ukraine Ethiopia Venezuela Zimbabwe
June 17		El Salvador Guatemala
June 21		Syria Lebanon Egypt
June 23		Nicaragua Poland	Uganda
Last Sunday of June	June 29, 2008 June 28, 2009	Haiti
Second Sunday of July	July 13, 2008 July 12, 2009	Uruguay
Last Sunday of July	July 27, 2008 July 26, 2009	Dominican Republic
Second Sunday of August	August 10, 2008 August 9, 2009	Brazil
August 8		Taiwan
First Sunday of September	September 7, 2008 September 6, 2009	Australia New Zealand
Second Sunday of September	September 14, 2008 September 13, 2009	Latvia
New Moon of September	September 29, 2008 September 18, 2009	Nepal
First Sunday of October	October 5, 2008 October 4, 2009	Luxembourg
Second Sunday of November	November 9, 2008 November 8, 2009	Estonia Finland	Norway Sweden Iceland
December 5		Thailand
December 26