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Something to celebrate

By Jennifer Garofalo jgarofalo @heraldstandard.Com 3 min read
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Dust off your light saber, boot up your TIE fighter and get ready to travel to a galaxy far, far away.

Tuesday (May the 4th) is “Star Wars” Day.

Celebrated annually, the date never changes. ItĢƵ a reference to the oft-said line (and its many variations), “May the force be with you.”

George Lucas’ behemoth franchise first hit movie screens on May 25, 1977, when “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” was released.

It kicked off a fandom that has spanned decades and generations, introducing us to the world of Jedis, Stormtroopers, Sith, Wookies, Ewoks and too many other species to list.

Over the past nearly 44 years, that first movie has blossomed into television cartoons, live-action series or shows.

According to the website radiotimes.com, there are a number of ways to watch the “Star Wars” movies, cartoons and live-action series in order.

They can be viewed chronologically (telling the tale in order); by release date; or in either Godfather or Machete order.

The former of those, according to the website, is the best way to explore the plot twists of Luke SkywalkerĢƵ story. The latter takes out 1999ĢƵ “The Phantom Menace,” deeming it “irrelevant” to the overall plot of the franchise.

The hours involved in watching everything “Star Wars” is crazy. A dedicated Reddit user who took the time to break everything down and found the time commitment to be 6 days, 5 hours and 4 minutes.

Watching just the movies is a more doable option, though viewers should prepare to settle in (preferably not in a Tauntaun) for a long day.

Binge watching the 11 live-action films Tuesday, will require either an early start or a late stop. The nine core films and two anthology movies (“Rogue One” and “Solo”) take up a whopping 25 hours and 7 minutes.

Still too much time? The nine core movies come in at 20 hours and 39 minutes.

Of course, Disney+ (which owns the rights to all things “Star Wars”) is also celebrating Tuesday, when the streaming service drops the first episode of its new animated series, “Star Wars: The Bad Batch.”

The show, which takes place post-Clone Wars, follows a squad of clones who differ from the other members of the Clone Army.

That episode is expected to be about 70 minutes.

Other things to celebrate include:

April 29: National Zipper Day, National Peace Rose Day, National Shrimp Scampi Day

April 30: National Adopt A Shelter Pet Day, National Honesty Day, National Hairstylist Appreciation Day

May 1: National Mother Goose Day, Law Day, Free Comic Book Day, Global Love Day

May 2: National Truffle Day, National Lemonade Day, National Play Your Ukulele Day, Take a Baby Lunch Day

May 3: National Garden Meditation Day, National Paranormal Day, National Lumpy Rug Day

May 4: National Star Wars Day, National Orange Juice Day, National Weather Observers Day

May 5: National Cartoonists Day, National Hoagie Day, National Bike To School Day

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