The third Tuesday of February may begin with lamentation for many students at BYU-Idaho, who think the last holiday of the month has already passed. Perhaps I can console readers with some good news. Our national calendar is packed with holidays and special observance days that are sure to make every day fun.

Tuesday, Feb. 21, for example, is Single Tasking day. Wednesday, Feb. 22 is For the Love of Mike Day and national Inconvenience Yourself Day.

Other inane holidays that remain this month are: Curling is Cool Day, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and For Pete’s Sake Day. My favorite is Spay Day USA, except I’m not exactly sure how I’m supposed to celebrate it.

And just think, March holds a whole collection of derisive tributes and holidays — March: National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Sadly the Honor Code will not permit us to celebrate the first holiday of the month — Beer Day on March 1. If you can’t find a holiday to your liking among this list, the humor website brownielocks.com has a complete listing of all official U.S. holidays.

Readers will probably be overwhelmed with so many new holidays to celebrate, rather than being consoled during this otherwise bland month.

Sometimes these extra holidays encroach on other special days. I certainly was taken aback on the discovery that my birthday falls on National Bathtub Party Day, Dec. 5.

Celebrating Bathtub Party Day is not as easy as one would think though. The company Wellcat Holidays & Herbs has copyrighted the name and requests that if you are going to pass out fliers to your friends to invite them to your bathtub party, you must contact the company for permission.

I’m not going to pay to invite someone to my own birthday bathtub party! I’m beginning to suspect these special days are sponsored for some kind of financial gain.

Who, for example, conceived the idea of having National Refrigeration Awareness Week? The American Society of Refrigerating Engineers of course, which paid a lump of money to officially create National Refrigeration Awareness Week.

We’re not fooled; it’s just a creative way to get the public to think about the product they want to sell.

There are, of course, organizations that lobby for special recognition on the calendar that are nonprofit, but even they are looking for financial support.

One example is February: Mental Retardation Month. This was sponsored by Arc of the United States, a group dedicated to awareness and wellness programs for mentally retarded children and adults. A good cause, I’m sure, but dedicating a whole month to it? What’s the point?

So do these national observances really work? How many students actually know that Nov. 19-26 is National Bible Week? Someone really thinks more families are going to read or purchase Bibles during this week because it’s nationally observed? I don’t think so.

But just in case, I am going to lobby to get my birthday back. Perhaps all of the United States will run to the store and buy me truckloads of birthday presents because my birthday is in some obscure calendar of spurious observances.

You’re welcome to attend the party, but its first come first serve; my bathtub is kind of small.