It’s Father’s Day, and to help you celebrate the father figure in your life we’ve put together a potted history and some inspiration to make Dad’s day special, whether you’re together or apart.

The original meaning of Father’s Day was to spend time honouring your Dad, or the father figure in your life. It wasn’t always about buying gifts.

Researchers say the tradition of appreciating our fathers on Father's Day can be traced back to the ruins of Babylon. 

It is recorded that a young boy called Elmesu carved a special message on a card made from clay almost 4,000 years ago. Elmesu wished his father good health and a long life. 

In Catholic Europe, fatherhood was celebrated as far back as the Middle Ages.  March 19 is known as the feast day of Saint Joseph, the fatherly Nutritor Domini (Nourisher of the Lord). 

The Spanish and Portuguese took the celebration of Saint Joseph to the United States. However, Father's Day was not celebrated outside Catholic traditions until the 20th century. 

In 1909, a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, listened to a Mother's Day sermon at church when a thought came to her. Her mother had died in childbirth and her father, a Civil War veteran, had single handedly raised the newborn baby and his other five children.

Sonora wanted to honour her father, so she pushed for a Father’s Day to complement Mother’s Day. 

At the first Father's Day celebration, young women handed out red roses to their fathers during a church service, and all those attending were encouraged to pin on a rose in honour of their fathers – red for the living and white in memory of those who had passed away. 

Sonora then took her son on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the city, bringing roses and gifts to home-bound fathers.

According to records in the US Library of Congress, President Calvin Coolidge announced in 1924 that he supported an official Father’s Day, in order to establish closer relationships between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.

However, it wasn’t until 1972 that President Richard Nixon made Father’s Day a permanent holiday in the US.

Today, Father’s Day is celebrated around the world on different days and with different traditions. However, the common theme is that Father’s Day is a time to recognise and honour the many different father figures in our lives.

Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, Father's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in September each year, and has not been made a public holiday. 

A Kiwi Fathers' Day was first observed at St Matthews Church in Auckland in 1929, and first appeared in commercial advertising the following year. By 1931 other churches had adopted the day. 

In 1935 Australia moved to mark the day at the beginning of September and New Zealand followed suit. Although Father’s Day has become commercialised, there is still the tradition for Kiwi kids to make their own cards and presents for dad.

It’s all in the presentation – make a simple breakfast special.

Make Dad’s morning with breakfast

Start the day with a surprise breakfast for Dad. It doesn’t matter so much what it is – it’s all in the presentation.  Dig deep and find your inner creative chef, or let the kids decorate his breakfast.

Do what Dad likes to do

Everyone is different. What does your Dad love to do? Go for a bike ride, play board games – whatever it is, do it with him.

If you can’t be together, get virtual

Why not challenge each other’s cooking skills via a video call? You could also play games over video – get your thinking cap on and be prepared for a laugh.

Time with Dad is what counts; put in that extra bit of love and effort and remind him how much he’s appreciated.

Images Unsplash