Happy Star Wars Day! (Geek Holidays You Should Celebrate)

So it’s THAT day today.  Star Wars Day.  May the 4th be with you–one of the groan-worthiest puns of all time–has gone from a mere play on words to an internationally celebrated day of geeky merriment.  Annually on this date, those bastions of local, geeky fun, comic book stores often have cosplay events, and there are perhaps hundreds of sales on Star Wars related memorabilia, games, apps, and other cool stuff all over the internet and in physical stores.

(Photo via SnorgTees.com)

The Official Star Wars page today discusses one of the first recorded use of the pun from 1979:

Margaret Thatcher has won the election and become Britain’s first woman prime minister. To celebrate their victory her party took a half page of advertising space in the London Evening News. This message, referring to the day of victory, was ‘May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations,’ further proof of the extent to which Star Wars has influenced us all.

Twitter has been full of the #StarWarsDay hashtags, and even major news stories are in on the fun.  CNN published a list of five things to do on Star Wars Day, and Vanity Fair published a huge, exclusive photo shoot that revealed some new characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which will be in theaters this December.  All in all, it’s been a fantastic day for geeks everywhere.

Star Wars Day is certainly not the only geeky holiday that is becoming widely recognized, however.  In fact, informal holidays have cropped up quite a bit in the past few years, and many have become nearly universally accepted.  (My personal favorite is International Left-Handers Day on August 13.)  International Pi Day, on March 14, is another geek holiday that is based on its date–3.14 being the numeral representation of both the date and the mathematical constant Pi. Most celebrants eat various forms of pie (one of my friends posted photos of her five course meal of pie, including pot pie and mincemeat pie)

A little less geeky, but perhaps more universal, is Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19, a day in which most social media posts will be punctuated with “AARRRRRRRR” and “Ahoy!”

To be honest, it’s really no surprise that these additional, less formal if no less serious, holidays have cropped up on the calendar.  Past civilizations (and a few current ones) often recognized far more annual holidays than the measly ten or so bank holidays that the United States recognizes.  It’s good to take a day to relax and enjoy some geek fun, so be sure to mark your calendars for other unusual holidays coming up.