420 Day this year marks the start of a 10-day stretch of palindrome dates

4/20 celebrations in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, Hippie Hill

The high holiday, 4/20, has rolled around, and San Francisco is once again playing host to the largest free cannabis event in the state. The day includes a full roster of events at Golden Gate Park's Hippie Hill, where the city expects about 20,000 people to pack the park.

LOS ANGELES - April 20 this year, also known as the "stoner eclipse" online, marks the beginning of a 10-day series of palindrome dates occurring this month.

What is a palindrome?

A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of characters that reads the same forward and backward. In other words, it remains unchanged when its characters are reversed.

For example, "racecar," "madam," and "level" are all examples of palindromic words.

Palindromes can also be longer phrases or sentences, such as "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!" or "Was it a car or a cat I saw?" Due to their unique symmetry, palindromes are often used as wordplay or in puzzles.

According to the Farmers' Almanac, the most recent 10-day stretch of palindrome dates occurred in March 2023.

The phenomenon will not occur again until May 2025, when an exceptional sequence of 11 palindrome dates will unfold, including an impressive run of 10 consecutive days. This rare alignment highlights a unique calendrical occurrence that captivates those interested in numerical patterns and date significances.

Palindrome dates in 2024

In total, April will have eleven palindrome dates.

April 2, 2024 (4-2-24)
April 20, 2024 (4-20-24)
April 21, 2024 (4-21-24)
April 22, 2024 (4-22-24)
April 23, 2024 (4-23-24)
April 24, 2024 (4-24-24)
April 25, 2024 (4-25-24)
April 26, 2024 (4-26-24)
April 27, 2024 (4-27-24)
April 28, 2024 (4-28-24)
April 29, 2024 (4-29-24)

According to timeanddate.com, using the dd-mm-yyyy date format allows for 29 palindrome dates in this century, beginning with 10 February 2001 (10-02-2001).

Remarkably, the sequence includes a leap day palindrome on 29 February 2092 (29-02-2092), marking this format's final palindrome date of the 21st century. The Farmers’ Almanac suggests that palindrome dates are considered lucky due to their rarity.