“Fathers Day” vs. “Father’s Day”: What’s The Correct Way For Celebrating Dad?
We all know what Father’s Day is: the one day of the year where we take time to recognize how special dads are. Of course, we can do that every other day of the year, too! Another thing we can do every day is make sure to use apostrophes correctly. Apostrophes are a particularly tricky bit of punctuation, and one of them seems to have gotten into a little accident in the name of dad’s special day. (We were waiting for him after the S, but somehow he wound up at the “ER.” Let’s hope for a speedy recovery. From our groan-worthy dad joke.)
Dad jokes aside, Father’s Day is actually the grammatically correct name of this holiday, which is celebrated every year in the United States on the third Sunday in June. In 2023, it falls on June 18. Before you go shopping for a gift, you can learn a little more about this special day and why we punctuate it the way we do.
What is the origin of Father’s Day?
We can trace the beginnings of Father’s Day back to 1910, when the very first Father’s Day was held thanks to a campaign by Sonora Smart Dodd. Dodd was inspired by the celebrations of the newly created Mother’s Day and thought dads deserved their own day, too. Dodd’s new Father’s Day would slowly grow in popularity and would become an official holiday much later in 1972.
Where to place the apostrophe in Father’s Day
Father’s Day places the apostrophe before the S, just like other holidays such as New Year’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. However, the reason that we do this for Father’s Day seems to be because of the precedent set by Mother’s Day. Hey, even Dad will tell you to always listen to your mother.
Mother’s Day uses a possessive singular because its founder, Anna Jarvis, specifically wanted it that way. Jarvis wanted Mother’s Day to be a time when each family honored their own specific mother, so the name reflected that. Sonora Smart Dodd was inspired by Jarvis’s holiday when she created her own, and it appears that the punctuation also followed in Mother’s Day’s footsteps. By using an apostrophe before the S, the name of Father’s Day indicates that it is more about honoring each individual father than about celebrating fathers in general.
