Father's Day is celebrated in over 40 countries around the world.  In Southern European countries it has been celebrated every March as a religious festival since the Middle Ages, whereas in the US and the UK it's celebrated on the third Sunday in June to honour the efforts of all Fathers.  We've been investigating the traditions around how Father's Day is celebrated in different countries and have put together the three best to share with you.

Germany

In Germany, Father's Day (or Vatertag) is a national holiday celebrated on Ascension Day, the Thursday 40 days after Easter. It is a day of male bonding, traditionally celebrated by men of all ages taking wagons of food and alcohol into the woods to enjoy a drink together.

These days this has been replaced with alcohol fuelled BBQs and bar crawls, but the result is the same.  The incidence of alcohol related traffic accidents in Germany increases three-fold on Father's Day and a lot of people wisely take the following day off work to recover.

Taiwan

Father's Day is celebrated on the eighth day of the eighth month every year.  This date was chosen because the Taiwanese word for eight is 'ba'.  The 8th August is 'ba-ba' which sounds similar to their colloquial word for 'Daddy'.

Thailand

Thai people celebrate Father's Day on 5th December, King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday.  The King gives a speech and many people wear pink to honour him.  Another tradition is for sons to give their father and grandfathers Canna Lillies on this day, a flower with masculine connotations.