Why You Should Celebrate 420!
What is 4/20?
People across the United States celebrate 4/20 (the official cannabis holiday) in a myriad of ways. In some communities, one might notice a cloudy gathering of flannel-clad twenty-somethings seated on a lawn atop colorful, patterned tapestries passing around a 2-foot-tall glass bong. For others, it may be a day where you and your oldest friends get together after work and fire up a particularly massive blunt (a cannabis cigar). In other households, maybe it’s the day you and your partner finally decide to take a crack at making cannabis butter and whipping up some special brownies. But for many in legal states in 2024, it’s a day where your local dispensary might release some fire new products, have some killer deals, or special events going on.
The Origin Story
Where did 4/20 come from? Depending on who you ask, you’ll get a variety of colorful stories about what event set every stoner's favorite holiday in motion.
Some will tell you it originated in the 70's with a group of boys in Oakland California who happened to select 4:20pm as the ideal time to blaze up every day after school. While some versions of the story describe this smoky tryst merely as a daily ritual within their friend group that ultimately spread (far) outwards, other versions of the story claim that the boys would ignite the herb after school right before embarking on a search for a fabled lost cannabis grow out in the woods near their community.
You may have heard that will tell you it this hazy celebration was born from the arts. Some sources claim that 4/20 (maybe surprisingly) comes from a mathematical message hidden within a lesser-known Bob Dylan song "Rainy Day Woman 12 & 35”. The multiplication of 12 and 35 does suspiciously add up to 420…
Other rumors swirl that the significance of 4/20 is based off of the time of day (4:20pm) that the Dutch will take their tea; Amsterdam, Holland being a historically world-renowned cannabis Mecca and a wonderland for connoisseurs of all types to enjoy the herb in social settings known as coffeeshops.
Folks used to say that 420 was the number of active naturally occurring chemical compounds found within the cannabis plant; however, that has long since been disproven as researchers have discovered well over that amount of cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids within the cannabis plant.
No matter what you may have heard about 4/20’s (albeit less than historically accurate) origins, one thing is for sure; April 20th is now an international phenomenon and without a doubt the haziest holiday in the U.S.
What's going on at the Green Lady this 4/20?
Free food, raffles, deals, and brand-new premium cannabis products are the name of the game! Make sure that you stop by to find out more (especially since 4/20 lands on a Saturday this year).
Don't hesitate to join our loyalty program to get live updates about what surprises are in store for you this year... happy blazing!
What are your favorite 420 memories? What are your plans for 4/20 this year? Let us know on social media or when you come in to shop!