Past History…

Children’s Day observations in the United States predate both Mother’s and Father’s Day.

The celebration of a special Children’s Day in America dates from the 1860s and earlier.

The Methodist Episcopal Church at the Methodist Conference of 1868 recommended that second Sunday in June be observed annually as Children’s Day.^[1]

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1883 designated the “the second Sabbath in June as Children’s Day.”^[2]

Also in 1883, the National Council of Congregational Churches and nearly all the state bodies of that denomination in the United States passed resolutions commending the observance of the day. About this time many other denominations adopted similar recommendations.^[3]

The New York Times in a June 10, 1895 article writes about Children’s Day observances in New York City.

Chase’s Calendar of Events cites Children’s Sunday and notes that The Commonwealth of Massachusetts issues an annual proclamation for the second Sunday in June.

Numerous churches and denominations, including the African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, now observe the second Sunday in June as Children’s Day.

More information on Children’s Day in the United States and in other countries is available from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Notes:
1. McFarland, John T. (1915). “Children’s Day”. The Encyclopedia of Sunday School and Religious Education, vol. 1. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons. 238. Retrieved on 2008-03-03.
2. Moorehead, James H. (Spring/Summer 2005). “Our Documentary History: Children’s Sunday in the Presbyterian Church“. The Journal of Presbyterian History 83 (1):85.
3. McFarland, The Encyclopedia of Sunday School and Religious Education, vol. 1., p. 238.