10 Father's Day Celebrations Around The World

In the Western world, Father's Day is the June holiday we use to celebrate the sound advice-giving, Eagles-listening person in your life known as Dad. It's also there to balance out all of the mom love left over from Mother's Day — Father's Day, as we know it, originated in the good ol' US of A in 1910 as a complement to Mother's Day.

Click here for the 10 Father's Day Celebrations Around the World (Slideshow)

In much of the world, Father's Day is celebrated in a fashion similar to the American experience: folks whip up a special meal with his meat and potatoes favorites, go out to eat or Pops gets a few presents, and kids occasionally come home from school with paperweights and other semi-useful knickknacks to show their appreciation. But as the holiday has gained footing in almost every corner of the world, many countries have put their own unique spin on thanking dads — take, for instance, Victoria, Australia, which has something akin to its own state-wide dad pageant (more on that later). 

Other countries have much older traditions to honor fathers that are mostly unconnected to the United States' holiday. In many places with Christian heritage, holidays praising dads are connected to important days on the Christian calendar — most notably St. Joseph's Day on March 19, or Christian Ascension Day, which takes place 40 days after Easter. 

For some nations, holidays similar to Father's Day are tied closely to national pride, where fallen soldiers, war veterans, and monarchs receive special tribute. In Nepal, the celebration of the father is a serious ritual that includes performing a ceremony for recently deceased fathers, and showing appreciation for the ones that are still around.

In honor of the guy whose name is often one of our first few words, we've rounded up ten different ways dads get their own day around the world, from the somber and religiously rooted to the lighthearted and secular.

Click here to see how fathers are celebrated around the world.