Couples in the Ulyanovsk region in Russia have been encouraged to take the day off work today, but not because of traffic problems or concerns over carbon emissions.
Instead, governor Sergei Morozov is calling on loved-up pairs to stay at home having sex, as part of "family contact day".
For the third year running, Ulyanovsk is offering prizes to couples who have a baby on Russia's national day - June 12th, 2008, exactly nine months from today.
This year's winners won a sports utility vehicle and with the region's birth rate up 4.5 per cent in the last 12 months, the plans seem to be working.
Talking to the Associated Press, Mr Morozov explained: "If there's a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits... So there'll be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country."
Russia's population has declined steeply since the breakup of the Soviet Union, with demographic estimates indicating a loss of around 40 million people by the middle of the century, due to poor medical care, emigration and decreasing birth rates.
