In recent years, there has been a resurgence of “national days”. Many of them are quite obscure (April 12th was National Grilled Cheese Day), yet there is one that continues to stick out: May 4th, the National Star Wars Day.
Depending on where you live, this celebration could be just as obscure as National Grilled Cheese Day, but in California, it’s a massive event. The California legislature named May 4th as the national Star Wars day only five years ago, after Disney opened up the Galaxy’s Edge theme park in 2019.
Back in 1978, crew of the original Star Wars used the phrase “May the Fourth be with you” on the fourth of July, a spin on the classic quote “May the Force be with you”.
Another possible start would have been a year later, when a British journalist used the phrase when addressing the newly inducted prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, on her first day in office.
The first recorded celebration of the day allegedly took place in 2001, at the Toronto Underground Cinema, for a marathon. Wherever it initially began, the franchise spawned more entries and gained a reputation as one of the most recognizable icons in the cultural zeitgeist, and fans worldwide began to celebrate May 4th as the annual Star Wars day.
An argument can be made that this is a holiday that is never celebrated the same way twice. The El Capitan theater in Hollywood is doing a marathon of all nine main Star Wars films on Saturday (the event has been sold out for a while). That’s not to say that anyone can’t do that, as franchise DVDs and Blu-Rays are readily available at just about any retail store.
The PlayStation store has discounted several Star Wars games (including the remastered Phantom Menace, from 1999), just in time for the holiday. This is also a great time to indulge with board games, as there exists a plethora of tabletop games that revolve around the franchise.
The fact that this holiday exists is an ode to how successful and influential it has been. Despite recent (fandom-related) controversies with the franchise, there’s nothing that can stem its popularity. How many other film, TV, video game or book series have their own national day? Things like this wax and wane, but once a property has reached this level of public exposure, it will never go away.
And May Fourth is probably just the beginning. 2027 will be nuts. 2077? That might be Star Wars Year. Who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see.
