Marijuana holiday 4/20 coincides with Easter and Passover this year. Here?s what to know

Marijuana culture’s high holiday, known as 4/20, falls this year on Easter 
Sunday, as well as the last day of Passover, meaning cannabis fans can 
celebrate in some unusual ways, including an “Easter nug hunt” in Los 
Angeles, kosher-style THC gummies in New York and a “blaze and praise” 
drag brunch in Portland, Oregon.

“It seemed appropriate with egg prices today that we’d be searching for 
something else,” said Brett Davis, who runs the marijuana tour company 
Weed Bus Los Angeles and organized the “Easter nug hunt.”

Here’s a look at 4/20’s history and how it’s being celebrated this year:

Why 4/20?
The origins of the date, and the term “420” generally, were long murky.

Some claimed it referred to a police code for marijuana possession or was 
derived from Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35,” with its refrain 
of “Everybody must get stoned,” 420 being the product of 12 times 35.

But the prevailing explanation is that it started in the 1970s with a 
group of bell-bottomed buddies from San Rafael High School, in 
California’s Marin County north of San Francisco, who called themselves 
“the Waldos.”

A friend’s brother was afraid of getting busted for a patch of cannabis he 
was growing in the woods at nearby Point Reyes, so he drew a map and gave 
the teens permission to harvest the crop, the story goes.

During fall 1971, at 4:20 p.m., just after classes and football practice, 
the group would meet up at the school’s statue of chemist Louis Pasteur, 
smoke a joint and head out to search for the weed patch. They never did 
find it, but their private lexicon — “420 Louie” and later just “420” — 
would take on a life of its own.

The Waldos saved postmarked letters and other artifacts from the 1970s 
referencing “420,” which they now keep in a bank vault, and when the 
Oxford English Dictionary added the term in 2017, it cited some of those 
documents as the earliest recorded uses.

How did 4/20 spread?
A brother of one of the Waldos was a close friend of Grateful Dead bassist 
Phil Lesh, as Lesh once confirmed in an interview with the Huffington 
Post, now HuffPost. The Waldos began hanging out in the band’s circle, and 
the slang term spread.

Fast-forward to the early 1990s: Steve Bloom, a reporter for the cannabis 
magazine High Times, was at a Dead show when he was handed a flyer urging 
people to “meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas 
Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais.” High Times published it.

“It’s a phenomenon,” one of the Waldos, Steve Capper, now 69, once told 
The Associated Press. “Most things die within a couple years, but this 
just goes on and on. It’s not like someday somebody’s going to say, ‘OK, 
Cannabis New Year’s is on June 23rd now.’”

While the Waldos came up with the term, the people who made the flier that 
was distributed at the Dead show — effectively turning 4/20 into a holiday 
— remain unknown.

How is it celebrated?
With weed, naturally.

In New York City, the cannabis brand Tokin’ Jew is advertising a kosher-
style THC gummy line, “Tokin’ Chews,” designed to meet dietary 
restrictions for Passover.

Davis said he expected 300 people to partake in the West Hollywood Easter 
nug scavenger hunt this weekend, aided by a mobile app leading them 
through participating dispensaries, trivia challenges and “stoner 
activities.” There is a $500 cash prize.

In Portland, Bar Carlo is hosting the “blaze and praise” drag brunch. 
Cannabis consumption isn’t allowed onsite — “Please blaze before you 
arrive or go for a walk in the neighborhood in between performances,” the 
event listing reads — but there will be a door-prize gift basket from a 
local dispensary.

Bar owner Melinda Archuleta said the brunch is a dry run for hosting Pride 
month events in June. She herself doesn’t care much for marijuana, but as 
a Mexican American who has been influenced by Catholicism, she is 
interested in seeing the two cultures melded “in a cheeky way.”

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how the queens do it,” Archuleta 
said. “We’ve obviously given them carte blanche to do whatever they want — 
it’s 21 and up — so it doesn’t matter if it’s sacrilegious or borderline 
offensive.”

There are bigger celebrations, too, including the Mile High 420 Festival 
in Denver and one put on by SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta. Hippie Hill in 
San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park historically has attracted massive 
crowds, but the gathering was canceled for a second straight year, with 
organizers citing a lack of financial sponsorship and city budget cuts.

Just north of the Bay Area, Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California, 
releases its “Waldos’ Special Ale” every year on 4/20 in partnership with 
the term’s coiners.

4/20 also has become a big industry event, with vendors gathering to try 
each other’s wares.

What about the politics?
There are 24 states that allow recreational marijuana and 14 others 
allowing it for medical purposes. But the movement recently has suffered 
some setbacks, with voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota 
deciding not to adopt legalization measures last November.

Several states also have cracked down on intoxicating products derived 
from hemp, which have been widely sold even in prohibition states thanks 
to a loophole in the federal Farm Bill.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law. As a candidate, President 
Donald Trump said he would vote for Florida’s amendment and signaled 
support for reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a process 
started by the Biden administration.

But his administration has not indicated cannabis policy is a priority. A 
fact sheet released by the White House last month complained that 
marijuana decriminalization in Washington, D.C., was an example of “failed 
policies” that “opened the door to disorder.”

A bipartisan group of senators last week reintroduced legislation that 
would ensure states can adopt their own cannabis policies and remove 
certain financial hurdles for the industry, such as letting entities 
deduct business expenses on their taxes.

Charles Alovisetti, a lawyer with the cannabis industry law firm Vicente 
LLP, said he hopes the administration will push forward with marijuana 
reform at the federal level, saying “it does align with some of their 
policy objectives — namely reducing criminal activity, or cartel 
activity.”

He also encouraged advocates to keep pushing, noting some measures such as 
improving banking access for marijuana businesses might pass as part of 
larger legislative packages.

“You continue speaking up, even if the political momentum isn’t there,” 
Alovisetti said. “It’s only possible if you stay in everyone’s ear.”

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coincides-with-easter-and-passover-this-year-heres-what-to-know/