On The Origins of May The Fourth Be With You

Happy May the 4th my fellow Star Wars fanatics and friends!

For those who don't know, I'm actually a pretty big Star Wars fan. The movies meant so much to me as a kid and I even wore Darth Vader as my sixth-grade elementary school costume. Which was something important to me back then. Those long-lasting elementary school friendships were established through a mutual love of Star Wars. 

I remember those days playing tag. Where we would waste away recess at the blacktop parking lot of St. Matthews, pew-pew-pewing away at each other as Tie fighters and X-Wings. Star Wars was the thing that made it so easy to bond with others as a kid. I think those movies, and the message behind Star Wars: of good winning against evil, was why the property lasted so long in the hearts and minds of fans.

In fact, the reason that I'm even on ATBWriters was that during the thick of the Pandemic, back in the times of 2020, Mary, Victor, Karissa and I did a bunch of Star Wars marathons on Twitter. Every single movie from the original to the new trilogy, with even some rogue one on the side. It was a fun time filled with memes and gifs and jokes and commentary. Good people that got us by during tough times. The rest of it became sort of history, as times changed, and life reopened. Though lasting friendships were formed.

As most fans know, May the Fourth is also a play on "May the force be with you."

Some reports claim that the United Kingdom hosted the first instance of 'May the 4th Be With You' as it marked the date when Margaret Thatcher was announced via the papers as Prime Minister of England. The London Evening News even had the "May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations" slogan plastered at every stand and visible place at the table. I do find it fitting, given that it was a different empire celebrating, well, the empire quite ironically unintended. Especially, as it's been revealed that high-ranking Imperials were in fact made to sound like Imperial Brits, as director Irvine Kershner meant in The Empire Strikes Back.

Still, there are some that believe it actually predated even this incident. Another origin story, came from a Randy Thom, director of sound design at Skywalker Sound. The man claims that it was actually the staff came up with the idea when in California shooting for Endor scenes in Return of the Jedi. How it was on May 4, 1982, when people on set kept stating the phrase 'May the Fourth be With You' rather jokingly, hence starting the trend.

Though all of that celebration of May the Fourth lead to the inevitable Revenge of The Fifth. Whose origins came to be a play on the original celebration - though often, in favor of the Empire. Especially, as Revenge of the Sith became the inevitable Episode 3 title. It's funny because about a year ago I got to cover Cinco De Mayo. Now, I guess I'm doing the fourth. If next year I get assigned May 3rd, I'll talk about Solar Eclipses.