For weed smokers worldwide, April 20 has become as exciting as Christmas morning. While potheads might look forward to this day as much as Ralphie looked forward to receiving his Red Ryder BB gun, many celebrators don’t know the history of this young, infamous holiday. Talal Awadallah, president of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, was helpful enough tell the classic story of 4/20 in 52 words.

“From what I understand, it was a tradition that started in California,” he said. “There were a group of teenagers who would meet by this one statue at 4:20, and that was their code word for smoking [pot]. They would say ‘Hey, meet at the statue at 4:20,’ and you already know what it meant.”

Mr. Awadallah said that if there is a moral to the 4/20 story, it’s that everyone should “smoke week ‘errday.’”

Contact Dominique Lyons at [email protected].