National Tree Day falls on Sunday, marking the 14th year of the annual event in which two million volunteers have planted more than 13 million native trees and shrubs around Australia.

That's a lot of trees, and just as well because next week is Continence Awareness Week, and given the vast distances involved in travel across this country, trees and continence often go hand-in-hand. (Why is it that when travelling by car, especially with young children, a sudden 'need to go' usually equates to an absence of public rest stops?)

Planting trees and continence issues are serious concerns and I'm not making fun of them, but one aspect of a journalist's job is to sift through a stream of media releases about special events known as observance dates.

Last week it was National Hoodie Day, Stress Down Day and others.

Next week is National Healthy Bones Week, Infant Massage Week and more (there is always more).

This year we've also seen Tartan Day, World Handshake Day and many better known observances.

Internationa l Talk Like A Pirate Day is still to come.

The calendar is full of observance dates and email inboxes in newsrooms are equally full of persuasive reasons for why journalists should write about them.

While most have serious underlying causes, it would be possible to spend most of the year wearing certain clothing or speaking in peculiar ways to highlight a cause.

I wonder if the sheer number of observance dates is minimising their impact?

My personal favourite was World Fairy Day, which fell in June and validated my childhood belief in fairies (why would there be a World Fairy Day if fairies were not real?).

What I'd like to see is an Overworked, Underpaid Journalists' Day.

We report on observance dates but we don't get a day for ourselves, so perhaps we should create one.

It's as simple as choosing a date and running with it.

Of course it would mean no news that day, as journalists would be observing their special date.

With no news to read, perhaps the community could pop out and plant trees.

After all, fairies do need trees to play in.