Happy Star Wars Day!

May the Fourth be with you! or Happy Stars Wars Day! A phrase that started as a pun, then a hashtag and then a full blown holiday celebration. Of course the phrase was inspired by the Jedi mantra “May the Force be with You”. Legend has it that the phrase was first used on May 4, 1979, the day Margaret Thatcher was elected as the UK’s prime minister. The Conservative party placed a half page advert in the London Evening News which read: “May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations.”

The phrase then really took off about 9 years ago when the social media world started to become a reality. Now there are events all over the world celebrating the day where fans dress up as Star Wars characters, eat Star Wars food, play Star Wars trivia and just generally get lost in the Star Wars world.

The June 2015 issue of Vanity Fair has practically dedicated the whole issue to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with wonderful new photos and trivia about December’s upcoming movie – they tweeted the issue yesterday, see below:

Rebel scum and stormtroopers join forces on our new #StarWars cover http://t.co/26F83laXQN pic.twitter.com/UoUCkYh3Ck

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) May 3, 2015

It’s not just May the 4th thats important to Star Wars fans it’s the whole month of May. The six live-action movies of the saga all debuted in May (beginning with the very first one on May 25, 1977). George Lucas has his birthday in May (he was born May 14, 1944) and this day has always traditionally been the starting date of the Star Wars weekends at Walt Disney World Resort.

Check out the highlights from this years Star Wars Celebration that took place April 16-19 in the Anaheim Convention Center in California. Next years celebration takes place in London, July 15-17 2016. (Tap here to watch in C5

So why not indulge in a little cosplay today and dress up as your favourite Star Wars character? If that’s a little over the top for you, you could invite some friends around for drinks, serve some Star Wars food and stick on the music mix below? Any excuse for a party! You could serve Lightsaber Hot Dogs, Bacon Wrapped Pretzel Lightsabers and Princess Leia Cupcakes. Justjennrecipes.com has all the instructions for these tasty treats and many more.

You could also be charitable – UNICEF and Lucasfilm/Disney have teamed up to get kids moving with a wearable power band and help save the lives of their peers in developing countries. Find our more here.

Star Wars Episode 7: news and rumours. The Daily Telegraph have a great article on this – head on over to their site to check it out.

Meanwhile, May the Fourth Be With You! and enjoy the Star Wars music mix below. (To play this video in C5, just tap here).