Hippies Rejoice- Earth Day is Upon Us

In perhaps the greenest party of the year (in every sense of the word), hippies around the globe will be celebrating in droves this weekend. Friday is 4/20, the annual pothead holiday where stoners of all shapes, sizes, and degrees of laziness can get together and revel in all things cannabis. The next day, on Saturday, the hippies will undoubtedly sleep in, watch cartoons, and smoke more reefer, perhaps purchasing more stock for the big finale on Sunday. Sunday, of course, is Earth Day, an event that takes place every April to remind us how much damage we are doing to the precious "Mother Earth." Before you pass judgment on these mangy-haired, smelly, law-breaking degenerates, let's discuss why these two holidays mean so much this counterculture.

It's unlikely that any pot-smoker can remember exactly where 4/20 came from or where it originated, but according to Wikipedia, it is widely accepted that in the early 1970s, a group of teenagers at California's San Rafael High School would meet every day after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana at the Louis Pasteur statue. Suddenly, Louis Pasteur is infinitely cooler in my mind. Anyway, these schmucks set a trend that expanded internationally, and to this day most serious cannabis users will still gather at 4:20 p.m. to smoke together. Because of a handful of kids with no fear of possession laws, April 20th has become a national holiday in slacker culture. Users have advocated for American drug law reforms, using 4/20 as a widely accepted date to do so. The 420 campaign urges people to write congressmen and act out to force the legalization of marijuana- the ultimate irony being that most potheads are far to lazy too act out on anything.

Although Earth Day is not an official holiday in cannabis culture, it has become a reefer-fest because stoners never seemed to care about policies, rules , and legalities anyway. The idea of Earth Day was first proposed by senator John McConnell in 1969, but it wasn't until the next year that anything became official (leave it to marijuana users to procrastinate a whole year). In response to wide spread environmental problems, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin called for an Environmental teach-in Earth Day to be held on April 22, 1970. Over 20 million people took part in the event, and it is now observed each year by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries. Senator Nelson claimed that Earth Day "worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level." Yeah, grassroots. It's funny how even the high-ups in American government can smuggle a little joint into their office now and again. Clearly, supplying the event with enough Cheeto's and 3-day old pizza is a yearly strain on the global food supply.

Earth Day is more than just a celebration of all things cannabis- people gather to complain about strains on our world today- pollution, greedy corporations, and Republicans. This Earth Day, you can even create and register an event at www.earthday.net so that your fellow Rastafarian friends will be jealous of how cool you are. Suggested events include (and I'm not making this up): Giving an Earth Day sermon, offsetting your planned activity's carbon emissions, and pledging to change a light bulb. What? Pledging to change your light bulb to some other kind of bulb that is better for the environment? Let's get this straight, you don't even have to change the bulb; you only have to pledge to do it. There's something wrong here and I can't seem to put my finger on it...

So to all of you hippies out there- enjoy 4/20 and Earth Day 2007. Roll up a joint, fire up your bong, steal a box of your mom's instant brownie mix, and don't forget to pledge change the light bulb in your EZ-Bake oven- you're in for one hell of a weekend.

Source: Wikipedia (Earth Day, 4/20)