Star Wars Day - May the 4th, the 1979 pun origin, and how fans observe May 4 (and Revenge of the Fifth)

Star Wars Day is one of the rare fandom holidays to start in a tabloid proof room and end up as global marketing. It succeeds because the pun lands in any language that uses "May" as the month name, which is most of them.

Origin

Margaret Thatcher won the UK general election on May 3, 1979. The next day's London Evening News printed "May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie" on its congratulations page. The line stayed as a punchline in British newspaper archives until 2011, when the Canadian Conservative caucus used it in an online fundraiser; Lucasfilm officially recognised the day in 2013 after The Walt Disney Company bought the franchise in 2012.

The 1979 origin is the canonical one. Other anecdotes float around - that the date was chosen to align with the release of A New Hope on May 25, 1977 (it does not, and May 25 is the date of the second Star Wars fan holiday); that the pun was coined by a fan club newsletter in the early 1980s (no surviving issue carries it before 2011); and that it originated as a German Marine Battalion training exercise (a back-formation on "Macht den Vierten mit euch" - false).

Lucasfilm and the 2013 - 2020s rollout

Lucasfilm's 2013 adoption of "May the Fourth be with you" was a marketing test. The first official video - a short film of Star Wars cast members wishing fans well - accumulated 4 million views in its first week. By 2015 the day carried a coordinated rollout: a new trailer, a new merchandise drop, and a Disney theme-park overlay. Disney acquired Lucasfilm in October 2012; the May 4 observance became the first anniversary-style event of the merged franchise. By 2018 the day routinely out- performs other Disney-owned IPs (Marvel, Pixar) in social- media mentions on a single day.

Lucasfilm's May 4 rollout typically includes a brand video (averaging 8 - 12 million views by 2022), a merchandise refresh, and one or two platform partnerships (YouTube, Twitch, Discord). Disney's Star Wars Celebration - the in-person fan convention held every 2 - 3 years in Anaheim, Orlando, London, or Tokyo - is now timed to coincide with May 4 when the calendar allows. By the mid-2020s the day had become the single highest- traffic moment for starwars.com, with traffic spikes of 8 - 10x over baseline.

May 5: Revenge of the Fifth

Fans jokingly call May 5 "Revenge of the Fifth," referencing Revenge of the Sith (Episode III) and the Sith followers "avenging" the Jedi. By May 6 the joke is exhausted, and most brands pivot to the next franchise observance.

"Revenge of the Fifth" is treated lightly by Lucasfilm itself - the company has acknowledged it in three of the past five years - and the retail pattern is one-day-only Sith-themed sales, mostly from third-party Lego and apparel sellers. A small "free comic book day" crossover with local comic shops has been a recurring pattern since 2018.

How it is observed

Disney theme parks (Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo DisneySea, Disneyland Paris) run limited-time merchandise and photo ops around May 4. Lego, Hasbro, and Funko drop special sets. The Star Wars fan podcast network replays the original films; archives of fan-made fan-edits rebound each year.

Charity and fandom tie-ins

Charitable tie-ins are small but consistent. Make-A-Wish runs an annual Star Wars Day fundraiser; the SEAL Family Foundation and USO run veteran-tribute charity drives around May 4. The Force For Change initiative (Disney / Lucasfilm) auctions bespoke props with proceeds to charity.

Beyond the films: books, comics, and TV

Star Wars was a book empire long before Disney+. Del Rey published the first Star Wars novelisation in 1976, before the first film, and the Expanded Universe (later "Legends") ran to over 300 novels through 2014. The sequel-era canon was reset in 2014, with new novels under Del Rey and Marvel producing its first Star Wars comic series in 2015.

The TV era begins with the 2003 Clone Wars micro-series and continues through the 2008 - 2020 CGI Clone Wars, 2014 - 2018 Star Wars Rebels, and the live-action Disney+ slate - The Mandalorian (2019 - ), Andor (2022 - ), Ahsoka (2023 - ), and The Acolyte (2024 - ).

What is contested

Two small disputes recur. First, the date's pre-2011 history: archivists at the London Evening News verified the 1979 Thatcher page in 2013, but Lucasfilm's official account tends to gloss the 1979 line as a "good fortune" rather than a partisan congratulation. Second, the appropriateness of the Sith-flavoured "Revenge of the Fifth" counter-day in 2020s fandom: a small but vocal cohort argues that the Sith framing trivialises real revenge. The dispute is mostly academic.

Legal status

Unofficial. The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm hold the franchise trademarks and have issued ceremonial proclamations in California, Florida, and Tokyo for in- park celebrations. No national government recognises May 4 as a public holiday.

May the 4th vs May 25

A second Star Wars fan holiday exists on May 25: the anniversary of the first film's 1977 release. It has no canonical pun and is observed lightly. (Some fans use "Star Wars Day, Round Two" or "Celebrate the Force" - both unofficial.) Disney runs the bigger marketing push on May 4; May 25 is mostly a video-store nostalgia beat and a podcast day.

The May 25 date is also the birthday of Mike May the Spaceman (a minor character from the Expanded Universe) and the in-universe day Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala are married. The 2005 prequel Revenge of the Sith - the third prequel, and the most cited reason fans adopted the May 5 "Revenge of the Fifth" counter-holiday - was itself released on May 19, 2005, not May 5. May 5 holds only by pun.

Related days

• Towel Day - May 25, another sci-fi fandom observance.
• Talk Like a Pirate Day - September 19.
• Pi Day - March 14, a science-fandom holiday.
• World Emoji Day - July 17.

Star Wars Day by the numbers

Sources

Primary sources: London Evening News, May 4, 1979 (page 4); Lucasfilm Ltd., "Star Wars Day: May the Fourth be with you" (May 4, 2013 release).