[Tyrannosaurs]

I (stay in bed and) have a dream.

That's different, you're remembering a specific person and what they did. I don't need to remember programmers, I am one and I work with them every day.

It just feels to me like harking after gratitude but the reality is that there are loads of people who do useful, important jobs and who get on with it day after day with no more than the usual acknowledgement.

If you do this where do you stop? Firemen day? Doctors day? Sewage workers day?

If you're a programmer, you don't need a special day to think about programmers, if you're not a programmer, then programmers are just one of hundreds of useful trades you should be thankful for, but I see no reason why we're special.

[Tomek_]

The origin of PD comes from Russia and AFAIK they have this tradition (inherited from the times of communism) there to celebrate professions with a special day dedicated to them, so yes, they do have firemen day, miner day or policemen day.