Happy Star Wars Day!

Perhaps I should say, “May the Fourth Be With You.”

Star Wars Day is a (very) informal commemorative day observed annually on May 4th to celebrate George Lucas’s Star Wars media franchise. Observance of the day has  spread quickly through media and grassroots celebrations since the franchise began in 1977.

The date of May 4th originated from the pun “May the Fourth be with you”, a variant of the popular Star Wars catchphrase “May the Force be with you”. Even though the holiday was not created or declared by Lucasfilm, many Star Wars fans across the world have chosen to celebrate the holiday. It has since been embraced by Lucasfilm and parent company Disney as an annual celebration of Star Wars.

The first recorded reference was the phrase being first used on May 4, 1979, the day Margaret Thatcher took the job as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. An online news article from the Danish public broadcaster says her political party, the Conservatives, placed a congratulatory advertisement in The London Evening News, saying “May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations.”

Of course, that  reference to May 4, 1979 has nothing to do with Star Wars. However, why let that stand in the way of a good promotion?

Perhaps a better reference is that on May 4th, 2015, astronauts in the International Space Station watched the Star Wars. 

Whatever the reason, I would like to wish you and Anakin Skywalker a Happy Star Wars Day!

By the way, the next day, May 5th is Cinco de Mayo in Mexico but is also known as “Revenge of the Fifth” day in a galaxy not so far away.