― Days Not Appointed ―
Father's Day
June · Modern Holiday
What was said of mothers must also be said of fathers. The fifth word of the Ten Words names them together. Honor is owed. The question this study raises is whether one calendar day Yahuah did not appoint is the right place to render that honor.
What Scripture Says
"Honour thy father and thy mother, as Yahuah thy Elohim hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged."
— Devarim 5:16
The command is daily. There is no annual day for it in Torah.
"Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old."
— Proverbs 23:22
Hearken — listen, obey, weigh his counsel — is a way of life. It is not a brunch reservation.
Where Father's Day Came From
The modern American Father's Day was started in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, a Methodist, who wanted to honor her father, a widowed Civil War veteran who had raised six children. President Nixon made it a federal observance in 1972. As with Mother's Day, the founder's intent was sincere and the holiday was not invented as pagan worship.
Worth knowing, however: the American holiday is a Protestant copy of an older Catholic feast.
- Catholic Church: The Feast of Saint Joseph (March 19) has been called Festa del Papà, Día del Padre, Dia do Pai — “Father's Day” — in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and across Latin America for centuries before America had one. The American holiday is essentially a Protestant parallel honoring earthly fathers in the same calendar slot.
- A separate point worth raising: Yahushua said, “Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). The context is religious titles — rabbis, teachers, spiritual fathers. The verse lands hardest against the Catholic practice of calling priests “Father” and the Pope “Holy Father.” It is not a prohibition against acknowledging the man who raised you. The fifth commandment settles that question. But the verse should make every believer cautious about how the word “father” is used in religious settings.
The Calendar Yahuah Set
"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it."
— Devarim 4:2
Yahuah set His moedim in Leviticus 23. A father's natural birth, his role, his memory — none of these were appointed there. That is not because fathers are unimportant. It is because fathers are honored daily, in the way a son speaks of his father, in the way grown children carry his name, in the way grandchildren are taught to walk in the way that was walked before them.
― A Gentle Word ―
Calling your father on the third Sunday in June is not idolatry. The Word does not call it that. But the believer who is asking whether his calendar should match Yahuah's calendar is asking a fair question, and the answer points the same way it pointed for Mother's Day.
Honor your father in June if you wish. Honor him also in February, and in the heat of Av, and on every dawn he is alive to receive it. That is the command. It does not need a holiday to be kept.