May the 4th (be with you): Why iconic Star Wars films and shows have stuck with fans

A Star Wars fan with a light sabre and a toy wampa poses for a photo at the Calgary Expo Comics and Entertainment show in Calgary on Friday, April 24, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol

CALGARY — Star Wars Day, on May 4th, is a psuedo holiday for fans like Kel Spoering -- especially when she may be able to thank Star Wars for her existence.

“My father is an incredible Star Wars guy,” said Spoering. “He took my mother to the opening of ‘A New Hope,’ the very first Star Wars, as their first date; and mom somehow still married him,” she laughed.

Spoering, now 39, recalled her Star Wars origins from the Calgary Expo Comics and Entertainment show late last month, wearing blue face paint with an elaborate crocheted blue hat that has a pair of forearm-thick tails hanging down her back. It’s part of her cosplay -- a term used often to describe the elaborate costumes worn to represent characters from different franchises -- imitating the Star Wars Jedi Aayla Secura.

Her first memory of the iconic science fiction franchise is being in her parents’ basement, with her brother, sat on a “horrible” brown, shag carpet of the 80s.

The 1983 film “Return of the Jedi” played on their boxy, behemoth of a television, capping off the original trilogy with heroic Luke Skywalker having lifted the weight of the evil Empire from residents in a galaxy far, far away.

Spoering’s story is similar to when 13-year-old Aayla Liu -- named after the character who inspired Spoering’s costume -- first watched Star Wars: playing with her sisters while the first film, “A New Hope” rang in the background.

Despite her given name, Aayla’s favourite character isn’t the blue, lightsaber-wielding Jedi. Instead, it’s Padme Amidala, a queen whose steadfast belief in the galaxy’s democratic republic drove her to become a tactful bureaucrat, though she sometimes favours more weaponized, aggressive negotiations.

She’s a strong female character and a role model, Aayla said, and Amidala is enshrined in her room.

“She’s awesome. Like, she’s really, really cool.”

May 4th, or May the 4th, has been calendared as Star Wars Day because of its punny reference to the science fiction franchise’s iconic phrase, “May the force be with you.”

There’s no concrete origin for the celebration, but many point to its use in a May 1979 advertisement in the London Evening News directed at then newly elected U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher, two years after the release of the first film.

There’s conflicting accounts about whether it was wishing Thatcher luck in the May 3 general election, or congratulating her the following day on her victory.

Star Wars, which is nearing its 50th birthday, is synonymous with family for some who were at the Calgary Expo.

Natarie Liu, Aayla’s mother, said when she and her husband met, they both loved Star Wars and kept it as a family tradition.

“(It) started off (with) these babies as baby Ewoks,” she said of her daughters at the Expo. The entire family was bounty hunter-themed this year. Her own face was framed by a contraption to hold her blue Cad Bane mask.

“It got a lot of attention and then we just kind of continued doing Star Wars almost every year.”

For others, the meaning has developed from a fantastical story of magical powers and light sabres, to tales of the unlikely rebellion winning over an oppressive regime.

“It really represents what’s happening around the world right now and the resistance that’s happening,” said Julie Williams, from Calgary.

“People are starting really to become awake about what’s going on in big government and smaller governments.”

Williams explained her cinematic interpretation from inside a PVC-and-foam combo wrapped in fur, and wearing a floppy-eared winter hat.

It took her two months to create her elaborate costume: a rebel soldier on the wintry planet of Hoth, riding a furry, horned animal known as a Tauntaun.

Like Spoering, Williams grew up watching the Star Wars films and TV shows. That means something to the actors who are remembered for their roles in them.

“A lot of the fans tell me stuff, they grew up with Jango Fett, they grew hearing my voice on the games,” said Temuera Morrison in an interview. He’s played two members of the Fett family, and is the familiar face of throngs of Fett clones.

“I really get a buzz that I, in some way, got them through some part of their childhood or, sometimes, a lot them were in a dark place.

“And watching Star Wars and Boba Fett and Jango Fett and more recently the Book of Boba (Fett) kind of get them through maybe some time they had in hospital, so it’s really been warm for me.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2026.

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press