Today is May 4th, and for fans of the Star Wars universe and nerds* like me, it’s a day to go around saying,
May the 4th be with you.
Why? A famous line in the Star Wars movies is,
May the Force be with you
and if you lisp just a little bit when saying today’s date, you get a nice little pun.
Of course, people will groan and sigh when you use this pun, especially if you combine it with the hand sign for “live long and prosper” from another movie classic, Star Trek. I can’t resist.
Here’s how the May 4th line works.
May is a month in the spring. May the 4th.
But it can also be used as a verb to ask or grant permission:
May I be excused?
You may sit at the back if you’re quiet.
Or it can express a strong likelihood (not certainty):
I may swing by after work. (I haven’t decided yet, but it’s likely I will do this.)
Or it can express a wish, as in this traditional Celtic prayer:
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
It’s not certain that all this good stuff will happen, but that’s what you wish for this person.
And that sense of a desire or wish is exactly how may is used in the original Star Wars quote
May the Force** be with you.
and in this pun
May the 4th be with you.
It’s a month; it’s a wish. It’s both!
The second part of this pun, the part that makes it work, is the fact that fourth (a date or position) sounds a whole lot like force (strength or energy) if you don’t emphasize that ssssss sound in force. If you soften the c instead of creating a sharp, hissing sound, you get fourth.
May the 4th be with you.
Of course, everyone will experience the 4th even without your blessing, wish, or desire. That’s kind of part of the joke.
Notes:
* I was standing in the back of a darkened movie theater during the debut of The Empire Strikes Back, juggling a toddler who’d grown tired of sitting quietly in the dark and yelling, “Don’t you believe him, Luke! He’s a liar!” when evil Darth Vader tells Luke he is his father.
**Here’s Obi-Wan Kenobi’s explanation of the Force in Episode IV: A New Hope. It’s the energy that “surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.” These movies depict a time when the galaxy is at war against an evil, well-armed power, and victory is by no means certain. Many have died. Many will die. So this phrase was a very strong expression of solidarity to each other and to a just cause.