Star Wars Day is a day dedicated to the celebration of the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas in 1977. It is on May 4^th (May the fourth, got the rest?) It is jokingly said: “May the 4th be with you”, in reference to the popular catchphrase in Star Wars: “May the Force be with you.” (Others, though, celebrate the Sith Lords and other villainous characters from the Star Wars series rather than the Jedi, on May 6, citing “Revenge of the Sixth” as a play on “Sith”!)

(The phrase “May the 4th be with you” dates back to at least 1979, on the day Margaret Thatcher was elected Britain’s first woman prime minister. Her party took out a newspaper ad in the London Evening News that said “May the Fourth be with you, Maggie. Congratulations.”)

It all started with the book “Dune” by Frank Herbert. First published in 1965, it is regarded as the main inspiration for Star Wars, an epic space opera written and directed by George Lucas. It premiered in 1977 and became an almost instant cult classic. Even today, almost 40 years later, Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time (earning over 2.5 billion dollars since the release of the first film).

Star Wars was a real game-changer, beginning a new era of special effect-packed motion pictures. For its time, and considering the limited budget, George Lucas pulled off a massive feat by creating advanced effects and filming impressive space sequences using only small-scale figures and setups.

The world was introduced to the Skywalker-family saga, and beloved characters like Han Solo, Yoda, Chewbacca, and perhaps the darkest villain of all time — Darth Vader.

If you are new to the Star Wars universe, here is the viewing order to watch the movies in:

The original trilogy: “A New Hope” (1977), “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), and “Return of the Jedi” (1983)

The prequel trilogy: “The Phantom Menace” (1999), “Attack of the Clones” (2002), and “Revenge of the Sith” (2005)

The sequel trilogy: “The Force Awakens” (2015), “The Last Jedi” (2017), and “The Rise of Skywalker”

Many Star Wars events are organized in different parts of the world, ranging from costume contests and Star Wars Day parties to movie marathons with friends, Star Wars trivia games, and even Star Wars themed snacks. Internet photo-meme sensations are spreading fast: first it was the Hadokening trend (a person sticks out their hand or pounds the ground a la street fighter and  a photo is snapped as the ‘enemies’ jump back) and then Vadering: a photo fad (a staged photo) that involves two people recreating the Star Wars scene in which Darth Vader uses the Force to grab an opposing character in a choke hold.

Hadokening

Vadering

You can visit my Star Wars Room (credits: S. Perkins)

For a better look:

Star Wars Day

For recipes, crafts, quizzes, games and much, much more visit: https://www.starwars.com/community

Some pics from my last visit to Madam Tussaud’s with a few of my favourite Star Wars characters: