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123 free Father's Day trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
15 free Father's Day trivia questions with answers. Father's Day trivia for the family table: how the holiday started in Spokane in 1910, when it became a US national holiday, and when Spain, Germany, Thailand and Brazil celebrate it. Play the questions below and share your score.
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Q 01Who founded Father's Day, holding the first celebration at a Spokane YMCA in 1910?
Sonora Smart Dodd
Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Arkansas and living in Spokane, Washington, organised the first Father's Day at the city's YMCA in 1910. Anna Jarvis is the founder of Mother's Day.
Q 02Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane proposed Father's Day in 1909 after hearing a church sermon about which holiday?
Mother's Day
Mother's Day, which Anna Jarvis had launched only the year before; Dodd told her pastor that fathers deserved the same. Her own father, a Civil War veteran, had raised his children alone.
Q 03The Civil War veteran who inspired Father's Day was a single parent raising how many children alone?
Six
William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, raised six children alone after being widowed — Sonora and her five brothers. Watching him do it is what prompted her campaign.
Q 04Which flower did Sonora Smart Dodd choose as the emblem of Father's Day?
Rose
Dodd chose the rose: a red rose worn for a living father and a white rose for one who had died. The carnation was already Anna Jarvis's emblem for Mother's Day.
Q 05Which president, in the election year 1972, signed the law that made Father's Day a permanent US national holiday?
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon, on April 24, 1972, 62 years after the first celebration in Spokane. Lyndon B. Johnson had issued the first presidential proclamation honouring fathers in 1966; Nixon made it law.
Q 06On which Sunday do both the United States and the United Kingdom mark Father's Day?
The third Sunday in June
Both countries keep Father's Day on the third Sunday in June. The second Sunday in May is Mother's Day in the United States.
Q 07In Spain, Portugal and Italy, Father's Day is held on 19 March — the feast day honouring which figure?
Saint Joseph
These Catholic countries attach Father's Day to 19 March, the feast of Saint Joseph, husband of Mary. Italians call it Festa del papà and the Portuguese Dia do Pai.
Q 08In Australia and New Zealand, Father's Day is celebrated on which day?
The first Sunday in September
Both countries hold Father's Day on the first Sunday in September, which falls in early spring in the southern hemisphere rather than the northern-hemisphere June date.
Q 09In Germany, Father's Day (Vatertag) is observed on which Christian feast, always a Thursday?
Ascension Day
German Vatertag shares its date with Ascension Day, a public holiday. A common custom is for groups of men to make a hiking trip pulling a Bollerwagen handcart loaded with beer, wine and regional food.
Q 10Thailand's National Father's Day is 5 December, the birthday of which king, who reigned from 1946 until his death in 2016?
King Bhumibol Adulyadej
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX, whose seventy-year reign made him the father of the nation in more than name. Thailand's Mother's Day is likewise the queen's birthday, 12 August.
Q 11In Brazil, Dia dos Pais — Father's Day — falls in which month?
August
Brazil keeps Dia dos Pais on the second Sunday in August, unlike the June date used in the United States and Britain.
Q 12Nepal honours fathers on Kushe Aunsi, a day named for which lunar phase?
The new moon
Aunsi is the new moon day in the Hindu lunar calendar, so Kushe Aunsi shifts around late August or early September from year to year.
Q 13In South Korea, mothers and fathers are honoured together on 8 May under what name?
Parents' Day
Rather than separate observances, South Korea marks Parents' Day on 8 May. It is not a public holiday, and is framed around the traditional value of filial piety.
Q 21In 1957 which Maine senator accused Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honouring mothers?
Margaret Chase Smith
Margaret Chase Smith, Republican senator for Maine, wrote in 1957 that Congress had for 40 years honoured mothers while ignoring fathers, 'the most grievous insult imaginable'; two earlier recognition bills had already failed.
Q 22Harry C. Meek, who claimed to have invented Father's Day in 1915, led which Chicago club?
Lions Club
Lions Club: Harry C. Meek of the Lions Club of Chicago claimed the idea in 1915 and said the third Sunday in June was chosen because it was his birthday; the Lions styled him 'Originator of Father's Day'.
Q 23In 1924 which president recommended the nation observe Father's Day but stopped short of a proclamation?
Q 14Which president honoured Father's Day in 1916 by remotely unfurling a flag in Spokane?
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson: on 18 June 1916 he pressed a button in Washington, D.C. that unfurled a flag in Spokane by telegraph. He wanted the day made official, but Congress would not act.
Q 15Grace Golden Clayton proposed a day to honour fathers in 1908 after which tragedy killed 361 West Virginia men?
The Monongah mine explosion
The Monongah mine explosion of 6 December 1907 killed roughly 361 men, about 250 of them fathers, leaving around a thousand children fatherless; Clayton's memorial service followed on 5 July 1908.
Q 16Clayton's 1908 service was held in which West Virginia town?
Fairmont
Fairmont, West Virginia: Clayton's service was held at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South on 5 July 1908, two months after Anna Jarvis's first Mother's Day service in Grafton, 15 miles away.
Q 17Why was the first celebration moved from June 5, the founder's father's birthday, to the third Sunday?
Pastors needed more time to prepare sermons
The pastors of the Spokane Ministerial Alliance needed more time to prepare sermons, so the 5 June date, William Smart's birthday, slipped to the third Sunday, 19 June 1910.
Q 18Father's Day founder Sonora Smart Dodd died in 1978 at what age?
96
Sonora Smart Dodd was 96: born on 18 February 1882, she died in Spokane on 22 March 1978, six years after the holiday was made permanent.
Q 19Why did the founder stop promoting Father's Day in the 1920s?
She was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago
She was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, so promotion lapsed; back in Spokane in the 1930s she revived the campaign with backing from the necktie and pipe trades.
Q 20The Father's Day Council, founded in 1938 to promote the holiday commercially, was set up by whom?
New York menswear retailers
New York menswear retailers: the New York Associated Men's Wear Retailers founded the Father's Day Council in 1938 to systematise the holiday's promotion; by the mid-1980s it boasted the day had become 'a Second Christmas' for men's gift industries.
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge in 1924 recommended that the states observe Father's Day but declined to issue a national proclamation; Congress had resisted in 1916, fearing the day would be commercialised.
Q 24Which social reformer proposed a citywide Father's Day in Chicago in 1911, only to be turned down?
Jane Addams
Jane Addams, founder of Chicago's Hull House, proposed a citywide Father's Day in 1911 but was turned down; a separate 1912 celebration was held in Vancouver, Washington, urged by Methodist pastor J. J. Berringer.
Q 25Father's Day is a recognised public holiday in which Baltic country?
Lithuania
Italy treated it as a public holiday until 1977.
Q 26When does the Eastern Orthodox Church keep the feast of the Forefathers?
Two Sundays before Nativity
Two Sundays before Nativity: the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers falls between 11 and 17 December and commemorates the ancestors of Christ; the Sunday of the Holy Fathers follows a week later.
Q 27International Men's Day, which honours men and boys and complements Father's Day, falls on which date?
19 November
19 November, eight months after International Women's Day on 8 March, and in many countries it shares the month with 'Movember' moustaches for men's health.
Q 28South Sudan has marked Father's Day since 2012 on which day?
The last Monday of August
The last Monday of August: South Sudan, independent from July 2011, held its first Father's Day on that day in August 2012.
Q 29Indonesia's Father's Day, first declared in 2006 in Surakarta, falls on which date?
12 November
12 November: Hari Ayah was declared in Surakarta (Solo) in 2006 and is far less celebrated than Indonesia's Mother's Day, Hari Ibu, on 22 December.
Q 30In Kazakhstan, Defender of the Fatherland Day, also called Army Day, is celebrated on which date?
7 May
7 May: Kazakhstan marks Defender of the Fatherland Day on the anniversary of the founding of its armed forces on 7 May 1992, a national holiday, while Russia keeps 23 February.