Is It Father’s Day or Fathers Day?
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Is It Father’s Day or Fathers Day?
As the third Sunday in June approaches, many of you may be wondering how to write the name of the holiday—is it Father’s Day, Fathers’ Day, or Fathers Day?
We last looked into the topic of where to properly place holiday apostrophes in a 2018 newsletter. Today we provide an update.
Do You Use an Apostrophe When Spelling Father’s Day?
The most direct answer is yes. The Chicago Manual of Style and The Associated Press Stylebook list the following holidays as singular possessives: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day.
CMOS uses the plural possessive for Presidents’ Day, while AP writes Presidents Day. Both agree on no apostrophe in Veterans Day.
We have heard from readers who object to the apostrophe in Father’s Day because it implies one father. There are several scenarios in which a person can have two fathers: a father and stepfather, a biological father and adopted father, or a child being raised in a home with two fathers. The same can be true of two mothers.
Our post Apostrophes and False Possessives discusses how in English, nouns become adjectives all the time. If you think of the word Fathers as an adjective describing the word Day, then you would not use an apostrophe. It would be a day for fathers. The same could be said for using the plural possessive Fathers’ Day. It is a day belonging to all fathers.
Perhaps someday the style guides will drop the apostrophe. Until they do, your spell-check program will most likely identify Fathers Day or Fathers’ Day as an error.
Must Father’s Day Be Capitalized?
Another common question for some people may be whether Father’s Day should always be capitalized. The answer is that when we are referring to the holiday, we do capitalize it as a proper noun phrase.
If on the other hand we are making a general reference to a nonspecific day associated with a father, we most often will not capitalize the phrase.
Examples
(Proper noun phrase) Celebrated on the third Sunday of June, Father’s Day is a holiday founded by Sonora Smart Dodd to honor fatherhood and paternal bonds.(General reference) When a dad can take the day off from work and spend it with his children, it can be a wonderful father’s day.
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The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation explains grammar and commas so simply, it is easy to remember. (Should there be a semicolon after simply?) The simplicity is the reason I just bought the Blue Book.
We are glad you find the book to be valuable. We do recommend a semicolon as per our Rule 1a of Semicolons.
I had this very issue when proofreading for a client recently. They were writing about Farmers Markets. Every reference was spelled Farmer’s. Using ‘suggesting’ mode on google docs, I changed them all to Farmers. There isn’t just one farmer at the market selling their produce, there are many farmers at the market. They rejected my changes. Gotta say I questioned myself until I read this blog.
I would say the spelling should be “Fathers Day,” because it is meant to be for not just one father, but a community of fathers.
We don’t say “my father’s day.” We say normally it’s a day for all the fathers, in other words, “Fathers Day.”
The same applies to “Mothers Day.”
I don’t think the apostrophe needs to be used. This is only my opinion.
The meaning and context of the holiday can certainly be interpreted in different ways. Leading style guides advise the use of “Father’s Day” in helping to establish a consistent treatment. As the post states, your spell-check program will most likely identify “Fathers Day” as an error.
In my opinion it’s clearly Fathers’ Day; the day on which we celebrate all fathers.
That’s why the restaurants have specials, and the stores have sales. They expect all fathers to be treated this day.
We already have a day for our individual father’s day; it’s their birthday.
It’s a day for all fathers, hence Fathers’ Day.
(There may be something of a meet-them-where-they-are going on here, as many people have trouble using apostrophes. So if we can get them to recognize the possessive (?) element of the day, we don’t need to demand they use the apostophe precisely.)
The meaning and context of the holiday can certainly be interpreted in different ways, each with its own substantiation. Leading style guides advise the use of “Father’s Day” in helping to establish a consistent treatment. As the post states, your spell-check program will most likely identify “Fathers’ Day” as an error.