Although it is public knowledge that Star Wars Day is celebrated every May 4th due to the phrase May the 4th be with you and its resemblance to May the Force be with you, not many know where (or when) this game came from. of words. We tell you in this note!
Happy Star Wars to all the fans of this huge galactic world. Whether you celebrate every May 4th or not, it’s never a bad time to sit down and watch something related to this great and popular franchise. But in case you have ever wondered where this celebration came from and how the relationship between the phrases was made May the 4th be with you and May the Force be with youhere we tell you.
While many will think that those who marked May 4th as the day of Star Wars it was just the fans lucasfilm or something related to franchise, the reality is different. According to the story about the origin of the date (which is recognized by the production company), the phrase May the 4th be with you was used for the first time on May 4, 1979, the day that Margaret Thatcher took over as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
That day, the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom made a pun in English (because of the similarity in the pronunciation of Fourth and force) in a newspaper ad London Evening Newsin which he congratulated the elected Thatcher. In it, party members wrote “May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations” (which translates into Spanish as “May the 4th of May be with you, Maggie. Congratulations”).
Of course this was not a coincidence. Two years ago, in 1977, it premiered Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hopewhich gives us an idea of where members of the UK Conservative Party got the idea to congratulate Thatcher. They probably had no idea what that phrase would come to mean years later.
So how did a congratulations to Thatcher become what we now know as Valentine’s Day? Star Wars? The response was not immediate, what’s more, it took a few years until the first Star Ways Day official. But something that helped a lot (besides the work of the fans) was the influence of this franchise in the media. To give you an idea, in 1980, the president of the United States at the time, Ronald Reagan, created a strategic advocacy initiative that became known to the public as Star Wars.
However, it was not until 2011 when the official account of Twitter of Star Wars posted the message “May the Fourth be with you“. In addition to gaining strength in the media and among the fans of the franchise, that day also took place the toronto underground cinema in Ontario, Canada, a film festival where special discounts were offered to the products of Star Warsthere were games related to the franchise, talks and the projection of the original series of films.
From then on, every May 4th is celebrated the Star Wars Day around the world and each fan celebrates it in their own way. There are some who sit down to watch movies or series or read a comic or book, others bring out their cosplays and meet other fans, while others prefer to go to a themed bar, event or convention. There are many plans, but none of them is missing the iconic phrase May the Force be with you.