Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day is a fairly newcelebrationin the British calendar compared with Mother's Day, which has been a very popular and well celebrated festival in the UK for a very long time.

Theoriginsof the celebration are American and it wasinspired bythe actions of a man named William Smart. He was aveteranof the USCivil Warand his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. Heraisedsix children alone withoutremarrying, which wasundoubtedlyunusual back in those days.

His daughter, Sonora Dodd, realised when she was an adult what her father hadsacrificedfor his children. It was in the early 1900s and she was actually at church one day, listening to asermonon Mother's Day. She thought there should also be a Father's Day celebration.

And so the tradition was born, on the third Sunday every June, close to the anniversary of Sonora's father's death. Britain took the idea of Father's Day from the American celebration and it has been celebratedofficiallysince the 1970s.

Father's Day is never quite such the bigcommercialevent that Mother's Day is, probably because it hasn't beenin existencefor so long. But what do British people do for Father's Day?

Well, most people would buy their fathers a card. The card would probably have a nice message in it saying what a great Dad their father is. Some people do buy presents as well.

Popular gifts for Dads are probably ties, chocolates or socks because these are things that Dads can always use even if they don't want them. Inthe run-upto Father's Day, or indeed Mother's Day, there will beadvertson the TV giving us ideas of CDs orgadgetswe can buy. Card shops will be full ofmugsor pens and similarmerchandisewith 'World's Greatest Dad' written on them.

Some families might do things together to celebrate Father's Day like going for a meal. As a specialtreat, British people might give their Dad a bit of a rest – make him a cup of tea, or even wash his car andmow the lawnto make him feel really appreciated.