Father's Day
Father's Day was not celebrated in the US, outside Catholic traditions, until the 20th century. As a civic celebration in the US, it was inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother's Day by celebrating fathers and male parenting.
After Anna Jarvis' successful promotion of Mother's Day in Grafton, West Virginia, the first observance of a "Father's Day" was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia, in the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton was mourning the loss of her father, when in December 1907, the Monongah Mining Disaster in nearby Monongah killed 361 men, 250 of them fathers, leaving around a thousand fatherless children. Clayton suggested that her pastor Robert Thomas Webb honor all those fathers.
International Mother's Day Shrine
Andrews Methodists Episcopal Church is most noted for holding the first official celebration of Mother's Day in 1908. Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother's Day, conceived the idea as a way to venerate "a mother's private service to her family." This reflected Anna's desire to use Mother's Day as a sentimental way to remember her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, following her mother's death in 1905. Following the original celebrations of Mother's Day in 1908 in Grafton, West Virginia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jarvis' holiday quickly gained support across America. Jarvis campaigned for recognition of Mother's Day as an official holiday. Anna chose the second Sunday in May as the annual date for the holiday because it marked the anniversary of her mother's death. The white carnation became a symbol of the day, and was selected by Jarvis to honor her mother's favorite flower. 
The celebration also extended to many foreign countries within only a few years of its conception. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed that flags be flown "on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country." The 1914 proclamation by Wilson represents a victory for Jarvis, since it recognized her holiday and mothers across America. The year 2014 represents the 100th anniversary of Wilson's proclamation and the official national recognition of Mother's Day as a holiday. The International Mother's Day Shrine in Grafton, West Virginia holds special commemorations and events in recognition of this anniversary.