Back during the COVID pandemic, people were encouraged to change the porch light to a green color as a show of unity.
It was supposed to symbolize us being united in common cause in enduring the pandemic and working to survive through it together. A lot of porch lights changed to green around here. . .but as the pandemic ended most turned back to white.
It’s made up bs that Facebook boomers come up with. It means nothing. Usually if someone’s porch light is green, and it’s not Halloween, their front yard also looks like a dump
It's still made up, someone had to make up for it to become something people do.
Not sure how effective this virtue signaling is when most people have no idea of the purpose though. I always assumed someone got cheap lightbulbs or liked the colors.
Ok by that logic, everything in the world is made up. But that's a far cry from "something made-up on FB"; which puts it on the level of "immigrants eating house pets!!!"...
Well, every concept is made up.
But it does seeem like something cooked up on Facebook as a virtue signal.
Does it really matter where it originated from though? It's clearly a signal that whatever the purpose of isn't widely known.
Tends to infer something is fictitious, or as you say "cooked up". So not everything is applicable.
Made up: "not real and existing only in the imagination"
* [fictitious](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fictitious)
* [imaginary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/imaginary)
* [fictional](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fictional)
* [mythical](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mythical)[](javascript:void(0))
* [imagined](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/imagined)
* [fantasied](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fantasied)
* [imaginal](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/imaginal)
* [invented](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/invented)
* [make-believe](https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/make-believe)
It is impossible to know what all these "green-lighters" are thinking; although the Walmart "honor the Vets" concept from 10 years ago is a totally legit explanation, since there's nothing fictitious about that.
So is boating. (If both green and red.)
So is virtue signal from FB, or from an actual far right conspiracy, who knows.
You're fine though.
The traditional (and well known, sponsored by many groups and understood throughout the country) is to tie a ribbon around a tree, light post, mailbox post or column.
My last letter was written on Monday. I average about 3 a week, plus a few postcards when I travel.
I also wrote them with a fountain pen if your concerned with how traditional I an.
Last text about 5 minutes ago.
I'm unsure what this has to do with the conversation.
Yes, doesn't everyone?
However, in the colloquial usage of this conversation, I assume the opposite of made up is "official," as in "there is no official reason people use green light bulbs. Some nautical enthusiasts use them in combination with red lights to signal their hobby, while others follow a made up idea that it represents supporting the military, despite the fact we have long established methods of signaling that support in a manner everyone would actually understand which don't include colored porch lights."
When did I ever say anyone should stop doing what they want? When did I say people should stop doing this?
Please point out where I said that. Why are you arguing so hard against me just saying what I want instead of leaving me in peace to do what I want?
You don't have to argue with me or comment, it's your choice.
Our neighbor puts up a green porch light for Halloween. Then he leaves it up for 6 months before switching back to a regular light. Come Halloween again, he switches back to the green light.
A guy in my parents neighborhood had two porch lights - one on each side of his front door. His Christmas decorations were one red light and one green light.
Does he own a boat? Red and Green lights are the nautical navigation colors on buoys and ships. If the red light is on the right side of the channel, you’re heading into port, or “home”, and remembered as Red Right Returning.
Can't tell if this was intended as humor. I think you've conflated two sayings.
"Red right returning" meaning that when entering a harbor the sailor should keep the red channel marker on their right.
and
"Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky at morning sailors take warning." meaning that red sky in the evening implies good weather and vice versa.
I was helping to deliver a boat to Hatteras on a rough, cold and windy day. Throwing spray that made visibility hard. and approaching the channel to get to the marina there were red and green lights everywhere as people used them on their houses or any "nautical oriented' place, which is practically anything in a famous fishing village.
Needless to say, it was confusing as hell but we didn't hit anything or run aground.
THE EVIDENCE
Paddy is derived from the Irish, Pádraig: the source of those mysterious, emerald double-Ds.
Patty is the diminutive of Patricia, or a burger, and just not something you call a fella.
There isn’t a sinner in Ireland that would refer to a Patrick as “Patty”. It’s as simple as that.
Same! So I got a color changing bulb that just has a little remote we keep by the front door. No app, but easy to change brightness level and switch between about 7 colors.
It is just the app that controls my router anyway and not a separate app. I love the ease of not having to stand on a ladder to change these lightbulbs.
The bulbs can also be controlled via the Alexa app. Alexa turns them on at sunset and off at sunrise whether I am home or not. I was always forgetting to turn them off until mid-morning and now I do not have to think about it. Also, I love it if I get home after dark and they are already on. I can hardly find my keyhole without the porch light.
It has made my life easier.
This is literally the situation *at my house*! My porch light is very precarious to change, so I don't change it.
Porch light is still green from Christmas.
Honest question so sorry if it’s stupid..how do you know where to put the red light and where to put the green light? What are “port and starboard” on the porch in relation to? Is it in relation to front and back yard? Or proximity to the lake or street? Like on a boat there is a definite front of the boat but what is the front of my house?
> But from what direction would you say?
When you're standing on a boat, it's relative to the front, the port side is the left, I imagine houses should work the same way, although maybe the opposite would make more sense and have it relative to the outside.
“Red right return” for channel markers. Keep the red markers on your right as you’re coming into port to stay within the channel. I’d set up my door the same way, keep red on the right side when I’m coming home.
I would say that the wall with the front door is the front.
I feel like the meanings of "front" in a boat and a house are subtly different, but close enough that it works for this purpose.
Not a dumb question at all. I just wish I had a better answer.
I would think of the front door as being the "front" of the "boat", so the green should be on the left and the red to the right, as you face and approach the door.
But if they think of the front porch as the "swim platform" and that the entry is on the transom, then it would be the other way around.
Or, more likely, they don't worry about it and put the lights in the direction that looks best to them. :-)
Like just an indiscriminate mass of bug?
"Honestly, I could do with a bit less bug."
Yeah, that works, but if they're uncountable, then it's singular: bug.
LOL. Our high school prom is going with a Gatsby theme this year and I asked the woman designing the decorations for part of the festivities if she was going to have a green light. She had no idea what I was talking about. I explained. I told my 20 year old daughter about the theme and she said, “Will there be a green light?” I finally got a text from the decorating parent saying she’d been asked about a green light by a third person and that she “will be incorporating.”
there's multiple reasons.
sometimes it's part of decor for certain holidays
sometimes it's to reflect team or school colors
sometimes it's to show support for veterans who have a high suicide rate.
So you have to know context
red light district is an antiquated use.
red light is common in dark sky preserves, or those worried about how light pollution interrupts circadian rhythms in a range of animals, including humans.
The light in my parents' porch is green because she say "green" on the package and thought it meant "energy efficient."
"I'll replace it when that one burns out."
That was 15 years ago.
Different colored lights attract different bugs.
Different colored lights affect your eyes differently.
Different colored lights carry different social stigmas.
Different colored lights sometimes look cool.
The store sells different colored lights and people pick whatever color for whatever insane reason they pick it.
We changed our porch and outer garage light from a soft yellow to a dim red a couple years ago to help nighttime migrating birds and to reduce overall light pollution. Not sure if green works the same....
Green is worse than yellow. If that’s your goal you should just turn your porch light off.
Green and blue is good at attracting birds, that might be what you’re thinking of.
My city is weird a majority of people dont have porch lights on. I think once people started installing ring cameras they dont really bother leaving the light on
I honestly have not seen a green light on a porch before other than it maybe Christmas I know that some people have yellow white bulbs that are supposed to attract less insects but they don't really work.
Also as a child I would hear veiled references to people who had red porch lights and it wasn't until I was much older that I got the historical reference for that because apparently if you have a red porch light it means that you're a prostitute and that you're accepting customers.
A green porch light most commonly symbolizes support, appreciation, and recognition for U.S. veterans and active military members. Popularized by the "[Greenlight a Vet](https://www.google.com/search?q=Greenlight+a+Vet&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1029US1029&oq=green+porch&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTILCAIQABgKGAsYgAQyBwgDEAAYgAQyCwgEEAAYChgLGIAEMgsIBRAAGAoYCxiABDILCAYQABgKGAsYgAQyBggHEEUYPNIBCDU2MDNqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ved=2ahUKEwjJiMXJ98iTAxVQHDQIHd32LBcQgK4QegYIAQgAEAQ)" campaign,
Funny cuz I live in SE Michigan and seen them heavily after the initial Iraqi war in 2003 under the guise of “our troops need to know who supported them” but it was all bs
you'll find this around plenty of MA towns for sure. It's at least common here in the Merrimack Valley.
Green porch light is support for military, blue is for police, red is for firefighters and EMS. It's most-commonly done by parents whose children serve/work in the respective jobs
It mostly doesn't mean anything. The military and walmart cooked up some campaign to use green lights to support the troops somehow, but it's not really a thing that people do.
>It's the opposite of a red light district. Just keep on moving because what you're looking for isn't here.
I wish people wouldn't post and upvote jokes in a sub designed for explaining things to foreigners.
Colored lights are cheap and simple now. In my neighborhood in the last week I've seen white, yellow, green, blue, purple, orange, and red lights. Mine are currently yellow.
I see more green at Christmas. But there's really no rhyme or reason to it now-- I know one house that has theirs set to random so it's a different color each night.
"Purple" was probably actually ultraviolet, since that makes things glow. Although some are better than others, and some could certainly just be purple...
My porch light is green, but not for any of the reasons people are listing. Our reason... house trim is green. When we are expecting deliveries, we tell the driver to look for the house with the green porch light. It makes us easy to find, as none of our neighbors have green lights.
I've never seen this outside of holiday applications. I *have* seen red lights outside in southern coastal areas - this is to keep sea turtles from following the lights and getting stuck on land places they don't want to be.
Red is too dark, so green or yellow help knock the number of bugs at the doorway to 1/2 compared to a typical white light. At least that is why I use a green light. No meaning to it whatsoever.
Don't see that where I live but I see a lot of windows lit up with bright red or other bright colors. I always assumed people were growing weed in there.
I change the color of my porch/garage lights with the holiday/season. Smart bulbs make it easy. I just changed it from the green which was forcSt Patrick's day.
This could be something that started in my town. The Loyola student that was murdered in Chicago by an undocumented person from Venezuela is from here, she graduated from our high school like last year I think.
So the town is doing a "justice for Sheridan" thing where people are putting green bulbs in their porch lights to show support. The school colors are green/white.
I wouldn't be surprised if the anti-immigrant crowd jumped on this and tried to bring it nationwide.
I have a neighbor who uses a different porch light color depending on whatever holiday is coming up. Currently it's purple for Easter. A few weeks ago it was green for St. Patrick's Day. It is red for Christmas and orange for Halloween. Whenever there's not a holiday coming up it's blue.
At least where I live back in 2020 the governor and others encouraged people to put up green porch lights as a symbol of support for medical and other essential workers. I've noticed some people who didn't bother changing them after that until the bulb eventually died. This was in Kentucky.
i see those around here too. usually it means they support military veterans - the greenlight a vet campaign started a few years back. sometimes it's also used to show support for medical cannabis or just a seasonal thing around st patricks. hard to know without asking them but the vet thing is probably the most common one nationwide.
This is the right answer. It's Project Greenlight, for vets. https://www.usar.army.mil/Portals/98/Documents/For_Commands/108th%20PDF%20DOCS/Greenlightavet.pdf
I have a color changing porch light so I’ll change the color for holidays or our sports teams. Maybe they didn’t for st Patrick’s day or the local teams?
It’s to support this, that and the other thing.
Green for military.
Blue for police.
Red for… fire department?? Idk.
But our green is up for Saint Patrick’s day. Still up. I gotta put a white one back in lol
Part of the "Green Light a Veteran" campaign. It is to show support for veterans and appreciation for their service. It started about 10 years ago.
https://www.usar.army.mil/Portals/98/Documents/For_Commands/108th%20PDF%20DOCS/Greenlightavet.pdf
https://www.naco.org/program/operation-green-light-veterans
So the baby crabs can walk back to the ocean. A relative of mine lives on the Oregon coast, everyone who lives on the coastline had greenish porch lights as to not confuse the baby crabs.
It’s to show that the home is a safe place for veterans if someone needed to talk. I believe it came out during the 22-a-day campaign against veteran suicide.
As a veteran, I had no idea my neighbors were appreciating me. I was just confused why they don’t use a more pleasant 2600k soft white for their outdoor lights.
All the houses in my neighborhood with colored porch or driveway lights it's a part of holiday decorations.
They just don't bother changing the bulb back when the holiday is over.
YEARS ago... like 20 years ago, Walmart started an advertising campaign to encourage people to install green lights to support the military. It was a marketing gimmick, thankfully largely unsuccessful, that preyed on the stupid.
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