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OK, be gentle. 'Star Wars Day' is a well-known joke, and I hope I've managed to make the intent of this article clear. If it's excluded from Wikipedia because it's a joke, then some later inclusion will hijack the phenomenon, as has happened with eats shoots and leaves. I've adhered to factual content as far as I possibly can with a first attempt. If further notable refs can be found for the Star Wars Day joke, please add them. If someone can come up with official registration evidence for one of the groups claiming to be Jedi churches who promote a Star Wars Day, please feel free to add to the official section - but remember that 'Star Wars Day / May the 4th be with you' was first a joke. There's a long discussion on the Talk:May 4 page about its inclusion there, please don't hassle the anti-vandal squad on May 4 without first contributing to that discussion. SeanCollins ( talk) 05:06, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
OK, there's an edit skirmish going on. I read the cited article, and it mentions only 25th May, never 25th May 2007. There's a text version of the document at starwars.com that includes the text '25th May 2007', but their version is subtly different to the council archive version. The council's version must be superior. The archived agenda item does mention 2007, but perhaps the final resolution was more generous. I've emailed LA City Council asking for clarification, perhaps that will help. SeanCollins ( talk) 07:22, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
That email brought the reply
I am not sure if anyone ever got back with you, so I am e-mailing in response to your question regarding "Star Wars Day". According to the Council Action on May 9, 2007, only the day of May 25, 2007 is referenced. Therefore, the Resolution was adopted to name only May 25, 2007 as "Star Wars Day".
I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.
Sharon Dickinson
<sob>
This is original research though, so I feel quite justified in sulking and not making the change back to 25th May 2007 only. SeanCollins ( talk) 23:13, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
There is another reason for not having Star Wars day on 25th May. That date is reserved for Towel day. One day of celebration at time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.100.43.228 ( talk) 08:29, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
the example in conversation looks a lot like an urban dictionary entry. ☭ мдснєтє тдлк ЅТЦФФ 19:04, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
I deleted the Controversy section as it was completely unnecessary. There was no indication that there was any "controversy," but merely the idea that some people (sourced only as the people from urban dictionary, apparently) call it Jedi Day. If we want to work it into the title that it is also known as Jedi Day that's fine, but I would think we need to do better than a single urbandictionary entry with only 34 ratings on it to begin with. Stever Augustus ( talk) 23:34, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
Just a thought, but perhaps it's worth noting that May 4th has other potentially sensitive associations; for instance look up the following phrase: "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming..." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bob99999999 ( talk • contribs) 16:10, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
These should be a noted difference between May 4th (which is usually called “Jedi Day” as it is inspired by the common Jedi greeting “May the force be with you), and May 25th (which is “Star Wars Day” as it is the anniversary of the 1977 release date of Star Wars IV: A New Hope).
While the latter is a celebration of the whole Star Wars universe, the former has a more focused emphasis on mythos of the Jedi and the Force. Sg647112c ( talk) 12:04, 26 April 2010 (UTC)
Someone inserted into the article, unsourced. Interesting anecdote, so I thought I would add it here:
I was present when my assistant Zoe Whittiker came up with the idea of "May the 4th be with you" while shooting Star Wars Episode 3 in the UK Janurary 2005, I made her tell Rick McCallum who told her to tell George Lucas. This gag was new to them and Zoe suggested that they release Episode III on this day. They both laughed and found it entertaining but everything was already set for the release on the 19th of May 2005 which could not be changed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DFS ( talk • contribs) 17:49, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
'May the Fourth Be with you' was used on a British children's television program called Count Duckula. The episode is 'The Vampire Strikes Back' (1988). This could be the earliest use.
68.144.10.151 ( talk) 03:48, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
I noticed that in the footnotes of this article there is a reference to Jedi-church.com, yet in the Jediism article, the reference is to Jedichurch.org. Should we add both references to both articles? or just find one that represents 'the church' correctly and keep it on both?
This came from re-re-reading one paragraph on this page:
So is there such a church or not??
Thanks, WesT ( talk) 21:33, 4 May 2011 (UTC)
Is there really any point to the template on this article? All it says is "Star Wars Day" and "May 4". Alphius 22:42, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
"when Margaret Thatcher was elected Britain's first female Prime Minister on May 4, 1979, her party placed an advertisement in The London Evening News that said "May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations."[3] This reading of the line has also been recorded in the UK Parliament's Hansard.[4]"
I'm British, born in 1980 (remember Margaret Thatcher, & the us Star Wars getting headlines later in the decade, been interested in politics/recent social/political history & geek stuff for over 20 years) and have never heard this before - if true surely it would'be been mentioned in magazine coverage of the films over the years even if just as trivia , and somebody (even if just as gossip/internet do you remember that Maggie star wars advert nostalgia) would have mentioned / written about it in the recent outpouring of coverage after Thatcher's death?
The paragraph is a slightly treaked c&p from a translation of the cited article - http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Kultur/2011/05/04/134815.htm?rss=true a Danish article from 2011 (posted on a Danish tv website) about Star War Day that gives no source(s) for that information.
Apart from blog articles and fan forums just quoting this article or wikipedia & repeating the factoid I've found this on a blog - might give a more reliable source, shame it doesn't say where/when this article was published.
"According to Lucasfilm’s archives, one of the earliest known uses of the punny greeting in popular culture comes from a 1979 newspaper ad congratulating Margaret Thatcher on her historic election as Britain’s first woman prime minister:
This message, referring to the day of victory, was “May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations.”
(This nugget comes from author Alan Arnold, who wrote about the making of The Empire Strikes Back for Lucasfilm.)" - http://blogs.evtrib.com/nerdvana/events/may-the-4th-be-with-you-margaret-thatcher/92610/ (quote/claim might be in his book Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - anyone got a copy?
The Hansard record in citation 4 has no connection to the advert but records a genuine use of the phrase - recognised as a bad pun on May the 4th *1994* - about the right year I heard Chris Evens on BBC Radio One make the same joke on their breakfast show, about it being 'Star Wars Day, May the Fourth be with you". Looks like even if it was used in 79 it wasn't til the almost mid-90s it suddenly went popular/viral (jokes being shared via the relatively new world wide web?) - at least in Britain.
The Hansard transcript says - House Of Commons Hansard Debates for 4 May 1994 Debate 6 Column 786 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199394/cmhansrd/1994-05-04/Debate-6.html#Debate-6_spnew7 "May the fourth is an appropriate date for a defence debate. My researcher, who is a bit of a wit, said that it should be called national star wars day. He was talking about the film "Star Wars" rather than President Reagan's defence fantasy, and he added, "May the fourth be with you." That is a very bad joke ; he deserves the sack for making it, but he is a good researcher." 109.224.137.121 ( talk) 17:58, 4 May 2013 (UTC)
Would the advert have been printed in the London Evening News or The Evening News (London) that merged with the Evening Standard? cf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Evening_News
Link to image of advert, which was on May 3 rather than May 4: http://imgur.com/Vq46cg1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.24.79.197 ( talk) 18:26, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
188.151.5.134 ( talk) 13:16, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
Except the Thatcher advertisement and the Hansard record, I have stumbled on some other early mentions that might be of interest:
188.151.5.134 ( talk) 09:50, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
I've been trying to add image to the article's infobox, but no matter what I try to do with the size, it won't resize. These are latest the parameters I've tried. Please correct me o anything I'm doing wrong with the size and add the image to the infobox.
Thank you. -- Super3588 ( talk) 21:13, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
"On May 3, 2016, the day before the 4th, Katelyn of Memphis created the phrase - "May the Fourth Be With You." It was then that she received all rights to the phrase and will receive an award from her smart-wit thinking." Huh? I don't get this. Rmaster1200 ( talk) 15:37, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
The etymologist Barry Popik here. The first cite is 1978, not 1979. Also, there are trademarks. Please add immediately. http://barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/may_the_fourth_be_with_you_star_wars_day_may_4th/ Barry ( talk) 20:07, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
I just said that the cite is on ProQuest! Anyone with New York Public Library access can verify this from home. Many academic libraries also subscribe. I do as much "original research" (horrors!) as the Oxford English Dictionary does for its entries. Someone made a Wikipedia page about me. If you don't want to add the earliest cites and don't want to give me any credit at all, do whatever you want. As a reader, I would want the earliest cites. Barry ( talk) 20:47, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
You hit the link and you find the cite(s). There are more than one that are before what Wikipedia now has...OED has listed me as a contributor. Are you saying that other professionals are respected, but not me?...Websites like mine and Quote Investigator and Word Spy and World Wide Words and Word Origins write articles about words and phrases. If Wikipedia wants to use our work, that's great. If we don't get credited, then whatever. Barry ( talk) 21:15, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
I guess I have to reprint it all here. "May the Fourth be with you" is from 1978, not 1979. "Star Wars Day" (May 4th) is from at least 1994.
6 May 1978, New Musical Express, “Pussbag” by M. Smiff, pg. 62, col. 5: MAY the Fourth be with you. MONTY ZAPPED-OUT, Radio Brampton
29 July 1978, The Globe and Mail (Toronto, ON), “Tasty Tidbits and Palette-able Prose” by Dennis Burton, pg. 31, col. 1: 4/5/78 On the fourth day of May, 1978, it was my wife’s birthday, our 7-year-old daughter, Malhyet, said to her: “I didn’t have any money to buy you a present for your birthday, Mamsay, but...may the fourth be with you!
19 March 1979, Broadcasting, pg. 64, col. 1: The word to NATPE: May the fourth be with you
Google Groups: rec.arts.sf.starwars STAR WARS DAY James Clayton (jclayton@lincoln.gpsemi.com 0522 502284) 5/4/94 Happy Star Wars Day May the 4th be with you.
Google Groups: rec.arts.sf.starwars Happy Star Wars Day Angela Boyko 5/3/95 On Thu, 4 May 1995, Jeff Hills wrote:
> Let me be the first to say May the 4th be with you. > > Happy Star Wars Day > > ROTFLAICGU!!!!!
May the 4th be with you too!
Google Groups: rec.arts.sf.starwars MAY THE 4th BE WITH YOU (yeah) FABIO CESAR RIVERA 5/4/95 This day should be known as Star Wars Day from now on, what do you think? Barry ( talk) 15:16, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
I also wrote about the trademark. As I told JesseRafe, I gave up editing Wikipedia 10 years ago -- he knows the many reasons -- but others can add this:
Word Mark MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU Goods and Services IC 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: Address books; almanacs; appointment books; art prints; arts and craft paint kits; autograph books; baby books; baseball cards; binders; bookends; bookmarks; a series of fiction books; books, magazines, newsletters and periodicals, featuring stories, games and activities for children; bumper stickers; calendars; cartoon strips; Christmas cards; chalk; children’s activity books; coasters made of paper; coin albums; coloring books; printed children’s coloring pages; comic books; comic strips; coupon books; decals; decorative paper centerpieces; diaries; drawing rulers; dry erase writing boards and writing surfaces; envelopes; erasers; flash cards; gift cards; gift wrapping paper; globes; greeting cards; guest books; general feature magazines; maps; memo pads; modeling clay; newsletters and printed periodicals, featuring stories, games and activities for children; newspapers; note paper; notebooks; notebook paper; paintings; paper flags; paper cake decorations; paper party decorations; paper napkins; paper party bags; paperweights; paper gift wrap bows; paper pennants; paper place mats; pen or pencil holders; pencil sharpeners; pen and pencil cases and boxes; photograph albums; photographs; photo-engravings; pictorial prints; picture books; plastic party bags; plastic shopping bags; portraits; postcards; posters; printed awards; printed certificates; printed invitations; printed menus; recipe books; rubber stamps; score cards; stamp albums; stationery; staplers; stickers; trading cards; ungraduated rulers; writing paper; writing implements Standard Characters Claimed Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK Serial Number 86342025 Filing Date July 18, 2014 Current Basis 1B Original Filing Basis 1B Published for Opposition March 10, 2015 Owner (APPLICANT) Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY CALIFORNIA One Letterman Drive, Bldg. B San Francisco CALIFORNIA 94129 Attorney of Record Barbara Quinn Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Live/Dead Indicator LIVE Barry ( talk) 15:29, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
You really are a nasty piece of work. ProQuest is a paid website. I cannot provide a free link to a paid website. I told you what the cites are and where they are--many times. Don't you have better thing to do than to ruin my life? I provided the earliest cite for "May the Fourth be with you." I provided the second earliest cite. I provided the third earliest cite. I provided the earliest cite for "Star Wars Day." I provided a relevant trademark. I make no money and give away my work for free. I have Crohn's Disease. If you want my blood, too, I'll give it to Wikipedia. I said I provide my work for what it's worth. I do not enter it in Wikipedia. If you want to ignore all this, you are welcome to ignore it all. What more do you want from my life? Barry ( talk) 20:10, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
Wouldn't it be more appropiate to celebrate the Sith on May the Sixth, instead of May 5th, since the word "sixth" is more similar to "Sith" than "Fifth"? Sixth differs to Sith by only one letter, where as Fifth differs by two letters. I don't imply that we can just change the date of a holiday, just discuss it. The concept of a revenge is that it is something that happens after the fact. It really doesn't matter if it takes place one, two, or fifty days after, just that it does. I actually managed to say that it was May the Sixth yesterday (May 5th), although I knew that it was May 5th. I guess I said sixth, because that was more orthographically similar to "Sith" than "Fifth" is. Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any comments you guys may have. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TrulsBekk ( talk • contribs) 00:09, 6 May 2016 (UTC)
We do need to add Revenge of the 6th, people do celebrate that day, also, there aren't any sources, it's not official, but people do celebrate the 6th — Preceding unsigned comment added by Colt 4532 ( talk • contribs) 13:51, 6 May 2017 (UTC)
Question: Should this article have a logo in the infobox? I believe it should, as many logos (both officially from Lucasfilm and unofficially from fans) have been created and used. I'm looking for consensus on this. -- Gestrid ( talk) 22:50, 9 July 2016 (UTC)
A Lucasfilm employee did some digging as well, the Thatcher mention is still unconfirmed, and the earliest dated use comes from 1980, where the AP quotes a Steelers fan saying "May the fourth be with you" while referring to their fourth Super Bowl victory. -- jonas ( talk) 07:33, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
Should “Star Wars” be italicized? Isn’t the day about the franchise in general, rather than the 1977 film? 31.54.161.105 ( talk) 18:29, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
This page is not a forum for general discussion about Star Wars Day. Any such comments may be removed or refactored. Please limit discussion to improvement of this article. You may wish to ask factual questions about Star Wars Day at the Reference desk. |
A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on 13 dates. show |
This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
OK, be gentle. 'Star Wars Day' is a well-known joke, and I hope I've managed to make the intent of this article clear. If it's excluded from Wikipedia because it's a joke, then some later inclusion will hijack the phenomenon, as has happened with eats shoots and leaves. I've adhered to factual content as far as I possibly can with a first attempt. If further notable refs can be found for the Star Wars Day joke, please add them. If someone can come up with official registration evidence for one of the groups claiming to be Jedi churches who promote a Star Wars Day, please feel free to add to the official section - but remember that 'Star Wars Day / May the 4th be with you' was first a joke. There's a long discussion on the Talk:May 4 page about its inclusion there, please don't hassle the anti-vandal squad on May 4 without first contributing to that discussion. SeanCollins ( talk) 05:06, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
OK, there's an edit skirmish going on. I read the cited article, and it mentions only 25th May, never 25th May 2007. There's a text version of the document at starwars.com that includes the text '25th May 2007', but their version is subtly different to the council archive version. The council's version must be superior. The archived agenda item does mention 2007, but perhaps the final resolution was more generous. I've emailed LA City Council asking for clarification, perhaps that will help. SeanCollins ( talk) 07:22, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
That email brought the reply
I am not sure if anyone ever got back with you, so I am e-mailing in response to your question regarding "Star Wars Day". According to the Council Action on May 9, 2007, only the day of May 25, 2007 is referenced. Therefore, the Resolution was adopted to name only May 25, 2007 as "Star Wars Day".
I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.
Sharon Dickinson
<sob>
This is original research though, so I feel quite justified in sulking and not making the change back to 25th May 2007 only. SeanCollins ( talk) 23:13, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
There is another reason for not having Star Wars day on 25th May. That date is reserved for Towel day. One day of celebration at time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.100.43.228 ( talk) 08:29, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
the example in conversation looks a lot like an urban dictionary entry. ☭ мдснєтє тдлк ЅТЦФФ 19:04, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
I deleted the Controversy section as it was completely unnecessary. There was no indication that there was any "controversy," but merely the idea that some people (sourced only as the people from urban dictionary, apparently) call it Jedi Day. If we want to work it into the title that it is also known as Jedi Day that's fine, but I would think we need to do better than a single urbandictionary entry with only 34 ratings on it to begin with. Stever Augustus ( talk) 23:34, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
Just a thought, but perhaps it's worth noting that May 4th has other potentially sensitive associations; for instance look up the following phrase: "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming..." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bob99999999 ( talk • contribs) 16:10, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
These should be a noted difference between May 4th (which is usually called “Jedi Day” as it is inspired by the common Jedi greeting “May the force be with you), and May 25th (which is “Star Wars Day” as it is the anniversary of the 1977 release date of Star Wars IV: A New Hope).
While the latter is a celebration of the whole Star Wars universe, the former has a more focused emphasis on mythos of the Jedi and the Force. Sg647112c ( talk) 12:04, 26 April 2010 (UTC)
Someone inserted into the article, unsourced. Interesting anecdote, so I thought I would add it here:
I was present when my assistant Zoe Whittiker came up with the idea of "May the 4th be with you" while shooting Star Wars Episode 3 in the UK Janurary 2005, I made her tell Rick McCallum who told her to tell George Lucas. This gag was new to them and Zoe suggested that they release Episode III on this day. They both laughed and found it entertaining but everything was already set for the release on the 19th of May 2005 which could not be changed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DFS ( talk • contribs) 17:49, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
'May the Fourth Be with you' was used on a British children's television program called Count Duckula. The episode is 'The Vampire Strikes Back' (1988). This could be the earliest use.
68.144.10.151 ( talk) 03:48, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
I noticed that in the footnotes of this article there is a reference to Jedi-church.com, yet in the Jediism article, the reference is to Jedichurch.org. Should we add both references to both articles? or just find one that represents 'the church' correctly and keep it on both?
This came from re-re-reading one paragraph on this page:
So is there such a church or not??
Thanks, WesT ( talk) 21:33, 4 May 2011 (UTC)
Is there really any point to the template on this article? All it says is "Star Wars Day" and "May 4". Alphius 22:42, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
"when Margaret Thatcher was elected Britain's first female Prime Minister on May 4, 1979, her party placed an advertisement in The London Evening News that said "May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations."[3] This reading of the line has also been recorded in the UK Parliament's Hansard.[4]"
I'm British, born in 1980 (remember Margaret Thatcher, & the us Star Wars getting headlines later in the decade, been interested in politics/recent social/political history & geek stuff for over 20 years) and have never heard this before - if true surely it would'be been mentioned in magazine coverage of the films over the years even if just as trivia , and somebody (even if just as gossip/internet do you remember that Maggie star wars advert nostalgia) would have mentioned / written about it in the recent outpouring of coverage after Thatcher's death?
The paragraph is a slightly treaked c&p from a translation of the cited article - http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Kultur/2011/05/04/134815.htm?rss=true a Danish article from 2011 (posted on a Danish tv website) about Star War Day that gives no source(s) for that information.
Apart from blog articles and fan forums just quoting this article or wikipedia & repeating the factoid I've found this on a blog - might give a more reliable source, shame it doesn't say where/when this article was published.
"According to Lucasfilm’s archives, one of the earliest known uses of the punny greeting in popular culture comes from a 1979 newspaper ad congratulating Margaret Thatcher on her historic election as Britain’s first woman prime minister:
This message, referring to the day of victory, was “May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations.”
(This nugget comes from author Alan Arnold, who wrote about the making of The Empire Strikes Back for Lucasfilm.)" - http://blogs.evtrib.com/nerdvana/events/may-the-4th-be-with-you-margaret-thatcher/92610/ (quote/claim might be in his book Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - anyone got a copy?
The Hansard record in citation 4 has no connection to the advert but records a genuine use of the phrase - recognised as a bad pun on May the 4th *1994* - about the right year I heard Chris Evens on BBC Radio One make the same joke on their breakfast show, about it being 'Star Wars Day, May the Fourth be with you". Looks like even if it was used in 79 it wasn't til the almost mid-90s it suddenly went popular/viral (jokes being shared via the relatively new world wide web?) - at least in Britain.
The Hansard transcript says - House Of Commons Hansard Debates for 4 May 1994 Debate 6 Column 786 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199394/cmhansrd/1994-05-04/Debate-6.html#Debate-6_spnew7 "May the fourth is an appropriate date for a defence debate. My researcher, who is a bit of a wit, said that it should be called national star wars day. He was talking about the film "Star Wars" rather than President Reagan's defence fantasy, and he added, "May the fourth be with you." That is a very bad joke ; he deserves the sack for making it, but he is a good researcher." 109.224.137.121 ( talk) 17:58, 4 May 2013 (UTC)
Would the advert have been printed in the London Evening News or The Evening News (London) that merged with the Evening Standard? cf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Evening_News
Link to image of advert, which was on May 3 rather than May 4: http://imgur.com/Vq46cg1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.24.79.197 ( talk) 18:26, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
188.151.5.134 ( talk) 13:16, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
Except the Thatcher advertisement and the Hansard record, I have stumbled on some other early mentions that might be of interest:
188.151.5.134 ( talk) 09:50, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
I've been trying to add image to the article's infobox, but no matter what I try to do with the size, it won't resize. These are latest the parameters I've tried. Please correct me o anything I'm doing wrong with the size and add the image to the infobox.
Thank you. -- Super3588 ( talk) 21:13, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
"On May 3, 2016, the day before the 4th, Katelyn of Memphis created the phrase - "May the Fourth Be With You." It was then that she received all rights to the phrase and will receive an award from her smart-wit thinking." Huh? I don't get this. Rmaster1200 ( talk) 15:37, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
The etymologist Barry Popik here. The first cite is 1978, not 1979. Also, there are trademarks. Please add immediately. http://barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/may_the_fourth_be_with_you_star_wars_day_may_4th/ Barry ( talk) 20:07, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
I just said that the cite is on ProQuest! Anyone with New York Public Library access can verify this from home. Many academic libraries also subscribe. I do as much "original research" (horrors!) as the Oxford English Dictionary does for its entries. Someone made a Wikipedia page about me. If you don't want to add the earliest cites and don't want to give me any credit at all, do whatever you want. As a reader, I would want the earliest cites. Barry ( talk) 20:47, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
You hit the link and you find the cite(s). There are more than one that are before what Wikipedia now has...OED has listed me as a contributor. Are you saying that other professionals are respected, but not me?...Websites like mine and Quote Investigator and Word Spy and World Wide Words and Word Origins write articles about words and phrases. If Wikipedia wants to use our work, that's great. If we don't get credited, then whatever. Barry ( talk) 21:15, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
I guess I have to reprint it all here. "May the Fourth be with you" is from 1978, not 1979. "Star Wars Day" (May 4th) is from at least 1994.
6 May 1978, New Musical Express, “Pussbag” by M. Smiff, pg. 62, col. 5: MAY the Fourth be with you. MONTY ZAPPED-OUT, Radio Brampton
29 July 1978, The Globe and Mail (Toronto, ON), “Tasty Tidbits and Palette-able Prose” by Dennis Burton, pg. 31, col. 1: 4/5/78 On the fourth day of May, 1978, it was my wife’s birthday, our 7-year-old daughter, Malhyet, said to her: “I didn’t have any money to buy you a present for your birthday, Mamsay, but...may the fourth be with you!
19 March 1979, Broadcasting, pg. 64, col. 1: The word to NATPE: May the fourth be with you
Google Groups: rec.arts.sf.starwars STAR WARS DAY James Clayton (jclayton@lincoln.gpsemi.com 0522 502284) 5/4/94 Happy Star Wars Day May the 4th be with you.
Google Groups: rec.arts.sf.starwars Happy Star Wars Day Angela Boyko 5/3/95 On Thu, 4 May 1995, Jeff Hills wrote:
> Let me be the first to say May the 4th be with you. > > Happy Star Wars Day > > ROTFLAICGU!!!!!
May the 4th be with you too!
Google Groups: rec.arts.sf.starwars MAY THE 4th BE WITH YOU (yeah) FABIO CESAR RIVERA 5/4/95 This day should be known as Star Wars Day from now on, what do you think? Barry ( talk) 15:16, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
I also wrote about the trademark. As I told JesseRafe, I gave up editing Wikipedia 10 years ago -- he knows the many reasons -- but others can add this:
Word Mark MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU Goods and Services IC 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: Address books; almanacs; appointment books; art prints; arts and craft paint kits; autograph books; baby books; baseball cards; binders; bookends; bookmarks; a series of fiction books; books, magazines, newsletters and periodicals, featuring stories, games and activities for children; bumper stickers; calendars; cartoon strips; Christmas cards; chalk; children’s activity books; coasters made of paper; coin albums; coloring books; printed children’s coloring pages; comic books; comic strips; coupon books; decals; decorative paper centerpieces; diaries; drawing rulers; dry erase writing boards and writing surfaces; envelopes; erasers; flash cards; gift cards; gift wrapping paper; globes; greeting cards; guest books; general feature magazines; maps; memo pads; modeling clay; newsletters and printed periodicals, featuring stories, games and activities for children; newspapers; note paper; notebooks; notebook paper; paintings; paper flags; paper cake decorations; paper party decorations; paper napkins; paper party bags; paperweights; paper gift wrap bows; paper pennants; paper place mats; pen or pencil holders; pencil sharpeners; pen and pencil cases and boxes; photograph albums; photographs; photo-engravings; pictorial prints; picture books; plastic party bags; plastic shopping bags; portraits; postcards; posters; printed awards; printed certificates; printed invitations; printed menus; recipe books; rubber stamps; score cards; stamp albums; stationery; staplers; stickers; trading cards; ungraduated rulers; writing paper; writing implements Standard Characters Claimed Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK Serial Number 86342025 Filing Date July 18, 2014 Current Basis 1B Original Filing Basis 1B Published for Opposition March 10, 2015 Owner (APPLICANT) Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY CALIFORNIA One Letterman Drive, Bldg. B San Francisco CALIFORNIA 94129 Attorney of Record Barbara Quinn Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Live/Dead Indicator LIVE Barry ( talk) 15:29, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
You really are a nasty piece of work. ProQuest is a paid website. I cannot provide a free link to a paid website. I told you what the cites are and where they are--many times. Don't you have better thing to do than to ruin my life? I provided the earliest cite for "May the Fourth be with you." I provided the second earliest cite. I provided the third earliest cite. I provided the earliest cite for "Star Wars Day." I provided a relevant trademark. I make no money and give away my work for free. I have Crohn's Disease. If you want my blood, too, I'll give it to Wikipedia. I said I provide my work for what it's worth. I do not enter it in Wikipedia. If you want to ignore all this, you are welcome to ignore it all. What more do you want from my life? Barry ( talk) 20:10, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
Wouldn't it be more appropiate to celebrate the Sith on May the Sixth, instead of May 5th, since the word "sixth" is more similar to "Sith" than "Fifth"? Sixth differs to Sith by only one letter, where as Fifth differs by two letters. I don't imply that we can just change the date of a holiday, just discuss it. The concept of a revenge is that it is something that happens after the fact. It really doesn't matter if it takes place one, two, or fifty days after, just that it does. I actually managed to say that it was May the Sixth yesterday (May 5th), although I knew that it was May 5th. I guess I said sixth, because that was more orthographically similar to "Sith" than "Fifth" is. Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any comments you guys may have. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TrulsBekk ( talk • contribs) 00:09, 6 May 2016 (UTC)
We do need to add Revenge of the 6th, people do celebrate that day, also, there aren't any sources, it's not official, but people do celebrate the 6th — Preceding unsigned comment added by Colt 4532 ( talk • contribs) 13:51, 6 May 2017 (UTC)
Question: Should this article have a logo in the infobox? I believe it should, as many logos (both officially from Lucasfilm and unofficially from fans) have been created and used. I'm looking for consensus on this. -- Gestrid ( talk) 22:50, 9 July 2016 (UTC)
A Lucasfilm employee did some digging as well, the Thatcher mention is still unconfirmed, and the earliest dated use comes from 1980, where the AP quotes a Steelers fan saying "May the fourth be with you" while referring to their fourth Super Bowl victory. -- jonas ( talk) 07:33, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
Should “Star Wars” be italicized? Isn’t the day about the franchise in general, rather than the 1977 film? 31.54.161.105 ( talk) 18:29, 4 May 2023 (UTC)