Cars were packed and picnic tables were made on Monday to celebrate the Father’s Day public holiday across Samoa.

In Matautu, a few families visited the Palolo Deep Marine Reserve to spend time together, honouring the fathers in their lives.

Fai and Moreen Fruean have brought their three young children to the reserve, and shared their Father’s Day thoughts with the Samoa Observer. 

Mr. Fruean his life changed completely from being a ‘youth’ to being a father, calling it “another level.”

“It’s great to celebrate all fathers here in Samoa,” he said.

“For my kids, I want them to be well educated and to follow in my footsteps.”

Mr Fruean is a teacher at Manono-Uta Primary School, and said he values education the most:

“I want [my children] to go to school, and graduate, and get a job to help my family."

His eldest is just three years old, and the youngest is five months. He said he has been learning the challenges of managing a young family.

“Even when there are problems, I want to learn how to manage my family in those times," he said.

The family have come out for the day with Mr. Fruean’s brother and his family, and their father too.

“This is a celebration of the how great are fathers in the family,” Mrs. Fruean said.

“A good dad is funny, and loves his family,” she said. 

But not everyone at Palolo Deep is celebrating with their fathers, or their children’s fathers.

Kula Ratumaiyale from Kadavu in Fiji has been in Samoa a month, and is working in Vaoala. And, though Fiji celebrates father’s day in September, she was missing her dad on Monday.

Ms. Ratumaiyale and her friends from the Fijian community have gathered to enjoy the public holiday.

“We have left our families behind – our kids, our fathers, our mothers," she said. 

“It’s strange, I miss them a lot."

But the patriarch of the family for which some of the women work has served as a kind of substitute father figure to them, which makes being away from home easier, Ms. Ratumaiyale said:

“The way he treats everybody, the way he cares, the way he loves us.

“He is like a special dad to us.”