June 17- Father´s Day

Father´s Day celebrates the importance of fathers. It is celebrated on the third Sunday of June in the UK, Ireland, Canada, USA and some other countries. In Portugal it is celebrated on March  19, Saint Joseph´s Day.

 My grandfather              

               



 The first photograph I know of my father (1909)

Mario Lanza (1921 -1959) was an American tenor and Hollywood star of the late 1940s and 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to become a professional singer at the age of 16. Mario Lanza  inspired successive generations of opera singers. In 1994, tenor José Carreras said "If I'm an opera singer, it's thanks to Mario Lanza".  Placido Domingo added: "Lanza's passion and the way his voice sounds are what made me sing opera”.

Granada is one of the hightlights of the film Because you are mine(1952), which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Song. It was chosen for the inaugural Royal Command Film Performance of Queen Elizabeth II´s reign, and was a box office success.

Father’s Day is not just another holiday to buy a gift or to peruse endlessly through a shopping centre for that amusing postcard. No. It is much more. Unlike other holidays celebrating soldiers, saints or historical events, Father’s Day celebrates someone close to us. Our closest family members are our stepping stones to the future: they teach us how to be in the world and provide us with our first impressions of society, music and art. Yet, more importantly, fathers, like mothers, give us that life-element essential to all of us: LOVE!