How many days until Father's Day?

Father's Day in the UK falls on the third Sunday of June, the same convention used in the United States and much of Europe. It is not linked to Easter or to any church calendar, so unlike Mothering Sunday it stays in a predictable window each year — always between the 15th and the 21st of the month.

The timing puts it right on the summer solstice, at the point when evenings in Britain stretch past nine o'clock and the weather has at least a chance of behaving. That shapes the day: a pub lunch in a garden, a round of golf, a barbecue if the forecast allows, or a Test match or Ascot week in the background. Cricket season is in full swing and the football has finally stopped.

It arrived in Britain from America after the Second World War and never developed the older folk traditions Mothering Sunday carries. What it has instead is a well-established set of modern habits — cards, socks joked about every year, a lie-in, and a phone call for anyone not close enough to visit.

Because the date lands on a different calendar day each year, a countdown is more use than memory. This one identifies the third Sunday of June for the relevant year and counts down to the midnight at its start.