HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPE-VINE: OUR NEW ABNORMAL The sad, bitter truth for us dads is that Father’s Day isn’t much more than an afterthought, a pale companion piece to the dedicated attention and glory attached to Mother’s Day. And while I’m aware that may not necessarily be the case with every family; if we’re brutally honest about it, we can admit that there’s a whole lot of truth to this observation. Both Father’s Day and Mother’s Day have been handed down to us via American influence, and the strong promotion of the two days are couched in commercial reasons.
If I recall my boyhood days correctly, I can say that celebrating Father’s Day wasn’t even a big thing here in the Philippines until the late 1980’s. It’s reported that it took a proclamation by then President Corazon Aquino to officially recognize Father’s Day as the third Sunday of June, here in the Philippines. My late mother wasn’t really big on those two days, dismissing them as American celebrations that had more to do with retail and shopping establishments looking for a reason for us to patronize them.
As a result, there wasn’t much done in our home to make Father’s Day feel different from any other Sunday. But in true mom-fashion, if we forgot Mother’s Day, there was hell to pay, and she’d make “tampo,” say we didn’t appreciate her. And when we reminisce, we love that about our mom, how she was such a walking contradiction – and even back then, she knew it, slyly .
