Grandparents Day
Grandparents Day, also known as National Grandparents Day – is a holiday that is celebrated the first Sunday after Labor Day and is used to celebrate both maternal and paternal grandparents. While it’s primarily celebrated in the United States other countries also have celebrations to honor their parents’ parents.
United States (Observance) Some of the countries celebrate this holiday on a different day than the American version. These include Australia, France, Germany, Canada, Estonia, Poland, South Sudan and the United Kingdom.
History
This holiday was first created by Marian McQuade before 1973. However, it wouldn’t be recognized as a holiday on a State level until March 27th, 1973 when it became recognized by West Virginia. Thanks to President Jimmy Carter and Senators Robert Byrd and Jennings Randolph introducing official legislation into the Senate, it officially became a national holiday on August 3rd, 1978.
The statue making Grandparents Day a holiday lists the three purposes of this holiday. These 3 purposes are as follows:
- to commemorate and pay respect to grandparents,
- to recognize the importance that older people can have on the lives of the young, and,
- to give said grandparents the opportunity to show love and support for their children’s children.
Customs, Traditions And Celebrations
This holiday is celebrated in a number of different ways by different people. Some people throw a party for their grandparents commemorating their life and achievements. Other people merely give their grandparents a gift or craft one for them. For still other people, the only pomp and ceremony given to grandparents is to present them with a cake.
A tradition that was prominently featured when this holiday was created, but is beginning to fall along the wayside, is the presentation of the flower Forget Me Nots to one’s grandparents. It was particularly important to present this flower to grandparents who were living in nursing homes, or to place them on their graves if they were deceased.
However, it can also be given to those who are still alive and/or living on their own or in their children’s home. Either way, it’s considered to be very important to honor the parents of your parents with some sort of pomp and ceremony. After all, without them you would not be here in the first place.
United States (Observance) 
