So What Exactly Is the Meaning Behind ‘Star Wars’ Day? 

Today is Star Wars day, an important part of the fandom surrounding the world of Star Wars. Each year, we share our love for the franchise, get new trailers or news about it, and remember why we love this franchise as a whole. For me, I have Revenge of the Sith on as background noise because that is a movie I have seen over 60 times and, at this point, can just recite it from memory.

But for some, they want to know why today? What’s so special about the 4th of May that it is Star Wars day. Is it an important anniversary in the franchise? A random date picked out of the air? And, well, the reality is simply that we’re a bunch of nerds who like word games, I guess! There is some history to Star Wars day, but the reality of the situation is simply: It’s a play on words! When you say “May the 4th” out loud, it sounds like the iconic “May the Force be with you” that the Jedi say to one another in the franchise (or Han and Luke saying it to each other in the original trilogy).

The “history” part of it is that when Margaret Thatcher was elected on May 4th, 1979, her party took out an ad that said “May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations!” but we hate the Iron Lady, so I’m sticking with the widely accepted “we like wordplay” history to it.

Remembering what Star Wars means to us all

Throughout the years, Star Wars day has gotten harder for me. I’ve written a lot about what Carrie Fisher and Leia Organa mean to me, and with each passing year, it just hurts that she’s not here to share in the festivities with us.

But today is special because it’s not just about getting new trailers, like we did with the Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer, or getting news. It’s about celebrating our favorite aspects of this story. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Kylo stan, if you love Padmé, or if you’re really into the formerly canon EU. It’s all Star Wars, and sharing our love for it is what makes us all so special.

So thank you, Star Wars, for giving me so much joy and happiness throughout the years and for this day, where we all just talk about our favorite space opera time and time again. Also, I guess, thank you for bringing me back Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, specifically today. So you can proudly tell your friends that Star Wars day is May 4 because we’re a bunch of nerds who just love a reason to say “May the 4th be with you” to our friends and not have people giving us weird looks about it.

(image: Lucasfilm)