Father’s Day is celebrated worldwide to recognize the contribution that fathers and father figures make to the lives of their children. This day celebrates fatherhood and male parenting. Although it is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide, many countries observe this day on the third Sunday in June.

In Catholic Europe, it has been celebrated on March 19 (St. Joseph's Day) since the Middle Ages. This celebration was brought by the Spanish and Portuguese to Latin America, where March 19 is often still used for it, though many countries in Europe and the Americas have adopted the U.S. date.

In the US a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd spearheaded the efforts for fathers to be recognized after hearing a Mother’s Day sermon at her church. Dodd’s father, a Civil War veteran, had cared for the family after his wife died while giving birth to the couple’s sixth child. Dodd celebrated the first Father’s Day by delivering gifts to sick fathers all over Spokane.

Many attempts to make Father’s Day an official holiday were defeated. In 1966, Lyndon Johnson finally made an official proclamation that Father’s Day would be recognized on the third Sunday of June.

Thailand's Father's Day is celebrated in December, on the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Everyone wears yellow. On Father's Day in Germany, men drink all day at beer gardens.

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