--- description: Get out your Princess Leia costumes and lightsabers and get ready to party title: May the 4th Be With You: Internet Celebrates Star Wars Day 2014 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f1ce11e6037a0cb/69868dc33bc999f7d41a3497/par7869552.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # May the 4th Be With You: A Brief History of Star Wars Day by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 4, 2014 3:07 PM CUT  A member of the Star Wars fan club dressed as Princess Leia celebrates "Star Wars Day" in front of the Colosseum in central Rome on May 4, 2014. A member of the Star Wars fan club dressed as Princess Leia celebrates "Star Wars Day" in front of the Colosseum in central Rome on May 4, 2014.Tiziana Fabi—AFP/Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 4, 2014 3:07 PM CUT Today is not a regular day. Today is Star Wars Day! Well, unofficially it is. Fans of the franchise adopted May 4 as the day to celebrate all things _Star Wars_ simply because “May the 4th” sounds a lot like “May the force be with you.” Apparently, we might have former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to thank for this tradition. She was elected on May 4, 1979 — two years after _Star Wars_ was released. _Entertainment Weekly_ [reports](http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20566981%5F20486767%5F20944862,00.html "undefined") that an ad in the London _Evening News_ read, “May The Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations.” But it wasn’t until years later (you know, because of the Internet) that the phrase truly took off. In 2011, the Toronto Underground Cinema in Canada put together an organized celebration with a costume contest and a film festival. Now, businesses have caught on to this unofficial holiday by offering [special deals and discounts ](http://starwars.com/star-wars-day-2014.html "undefined")on _Star Wars_\-related merchandise. If you want to keep corporations from co-opting the day, then [bust out your Princess Leia costume](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzahjz6J4nE "undefined") and let yourself get a little weird today. May the 4th be with all of you. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/87062/may-the-4th-be-with-you-a-brief-history-of-star-wars-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/87062/may-the-4th-be-with-you-a-brief-history-of-star-wars-day/"},"headline":"May the 4th Be With You: A Brief History of Star Wars Day","datePublished":"2014-05-04T15:07:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:23.523Z","description":"Get out your Princess Leia costumes and lightsabers and get ready to party","url":"https://time.com/87062/may-the-4th-be-with-you-a-brief-history-of-star-wars-day/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Star Wars topic","Appreciation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f1ce11e6037a0cb/69868dc33bc999f7d41a3497/par7869552.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f1ce11e6037a0cb/69868dc33bc999f7d41a3497/par7869552.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ITALY-STAR-WARS-DAY-ROME","caption":"ITALY-STAR-WARS-DAY-ROME","creditText":"Tiziana Fabi—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/87062/may-the-4th-be-with-you-a-brief-history-of-star-wars-day/","name":"May the 4th Be With You: A Brief History of Star Wars Day"}}]}] ```