In Taiwan, Father's Day is celebrated on August 8. The fact that the day of honor of all fathers is on a date other than is the case in its "mother country", the U.S., is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is the background on which this day was fixed in Taiwan. And this background can be explained as follows:
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The word father means ba-ba in Chinese. As for pronunciation, the syllable ba, however, also stands for the number eight. Thus, ba-ba not only means father, but also eight-eight - the eigth day in the eigth month of the year. And this is nothing but August 8! This is why this day is Father's Day in Taiwan. Not bad, is it? Thus, the fixation of this day was exclusively linguistically motivated. Such reasoning is gobsmacking; it can hardly be topped!
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Unlike other official holidays, Father's Day is of rather a private nature. Not the complete family, with grand-parents, parents, children, and grandchildren, gathers and celebrates it, but only parents and children. On that day, the hero is, of course, the father. He will be invited by his wife and children and spend a beautiful day or at least afternoon with them. In turn, his wife and children praise him to the skies and let him know time and again how much they love him and how important he is for them. And they give him a present - a greeting card, for example, which is cheap and personal. This card will then be filled with words of love and gratitude - for his courage of having been able to stand mom and her nagging for such a long period of time. And this, then, shows that he is really a hero, doesn't it?
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