Families play a significant role in peoples’ lives, with multiple days across the year made to celebrate different family members. Children’s Day, Baby Day, and Cousin’s Day are just a few of the lesser known occasions. Most are probably more familiar with Mother’s Day, a widespread cultural celebration that takes place on different days depending on the country. While in the United States Mother’s Day is on every second Sunday of May, here in Egypt it is celebrated every 21 March — and it is rarely overlooked by children, husbands, or even corporations. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about Egyptian Father’s Day. While the day is celebrated to some extent every 21 June, it does not receive the same attention as its counterpart. To understand why the day receives comparatively little attention, a look back at the creation of Egyptian Mother’s Day in 1956 is needed. Journalist Mostafa Amin advocated for the day, inspired by American activist Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, and it was adopted into the Egyptian calendar as a way to celebrate mothers. At this time, Father’s Day did not exist in the Arab world as it…
