4:20 is just another time on the clock for most people; However, if you are a part of the cannabis community, you may get excited when the clock hits this magic time of day. 4:20 is a ritual time of day when people partake in cannabis. They even celebrate 4:20 on the twentieth day of April, 4/20. So many people take part in the celebrations, but do you know where they originated?
The lore of 4/20 begins with a group of teenagers living in California during the early 1970s. The teens had discovered an abandoned marijuana plant. They would meet up at 4:20 on certain days to visit the plant and take flower and smoke it. The group would signal to each other that they would be meeting on a particular day by using the phrase 4:20. This coded message would allow them to talk about meeting and smoking the plant without their teachers or parents catching on.
So how did the phrase blow up if it was just a group of kids using it to hide smoking marijuana from their parents? One of the kid's dads managed The Grateful Dead's real estate. The kids would be backstage all the time at their concerts. Of course, they continued to use the phrase, and it caught on throughout the Grateful Dead community.
In 1990 the first 4/20 was organized; word spread through the community like wildfire. A High times reporter (Steven Bloom) caught wind of it and sent the flyer he received to the Huffington Post. Bloom was amongst the Grateful Dead crowd when he received the flyer that read, " We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420ing..." From this point forward the legend of 420 continued to grow.
How big of a deal is 4/20 in 2022? There is a mind-boggling number of events to attend. 4/20 is almost a national holiday, so many people gather to celebrate it. It is not just limited to legal states or even the US either. You can find a 4/20 event almost anywhere in the world. Where do you plan on spending your 4/20?