Star Wars Day didn't come from George Lucas, a marketing team, or even the franchise's original release date. It came from a pun, spotted by a British political party in 1979, that took decades to actually become a holiday. Click the green Configure button and set how far ahead you'd like to be alerted.
The pun that came from an election, not a movie
The earliest documented use of "May the Fourth be with you" has nothing to do with Star Wars marketing at all — it appeared in a 1979 newspaper ad placed by the UK Conservative Party, congratulating newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whose victory happened to land on May 4th. It would be another two decades before the phrase caught on widely among Star Wars fans themselves, eventually spreading through internet forums and early social media in the 2000s.
From a grassroots joke to a corporate holiday
The first organized public celebration didn't happen until 2011, at a single cinema in Toronto, complete with a costume contest and trivia. Everything changed the following year when Disney acquired Lucasfilm — by 2013, Disney had officially adopted May 4th as Star Wars Day, turning a fan-made pun into a coordinated annual event with merchandise drops, theme park festivities, and new content releases timed to the date.
A second, less official holiday the next day
Some fans extend the celebration into May 5th, nicknamed "Revenge of the Fifth" — a play on Revenge of the Sith — dedicated to celebrating the franchise's villains rather than its heroes.
Worth knowing
There's actually a competing date in Star Wars fandom: May 25th, the anniversary of the original 1977 film's release, was declared Star Wars Day by the Los Angeles City Council back in 2007. May 4th won out in the long run — the California State Legislature formally designated it as the official date in 2019 — but May 25th lives on separately as Geek Pride Day.
So whether you're planning a movie marathon, a costume, or just want to drop the line on cue, click that green Configure button and let the date come to you.