Stormtrooper in the Cairngorms, Photographer Darryl Jones
Star Wars Day
May 4
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
“Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.”
~ Darth Vader, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, 1977
Even Darth Vader doesn't put all his faith in technology! Got a penchant for basic black and capes to match your dancing ghillies? Or perhaps you prefer the Sith equivalent of white tie for the newly conscripted and kilted Stormtrooper. Channel your dark side these Star Wars Days consisting of May 4th (May the Fourth Be With You!) and May 5th (the Revenge of the Fifth) with a dancing visit to The Death Star, a space station as large as a natural moon that housed the "ultimate weapon", a planet-destroying laser!
The Death Star
Apocryphally, the fourth of May became Star Wars Day as a result of an indirect Star Wars movie reference first used on May 4, 1979, the day Margaret Thatcher took office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. An online news article from the Danish public broadcaster stated that her political party, the Conservatives, placed a congratulatory advertisement in The London Evening News, saying "May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations." Not to be outdone, the Sith Order (the supernaturally gifted Force-wielders driven by a Machiavellian agenda of galactic domination and revenge against their arch-rivals, the Jedi) have their revenge the following day with "Revenge of the Fifth."
The Death Star is a fictional mobile space station and galactic superweapon featured in the Star Wars space-opera franchise. The first Death Star, introduced in the original Star Wars film, is stated to be more than 120 kilometers (75 mi) in diameter, and is crewed by an estimated 1.7 million military personnel and 400,000 droids.
The second Death Star, which appears in Return of the Jedi, is significantly larger at between 160 kilometres (99 mi) to 900 kilometres (560 mi) in diameter, and technologically more powerful than its predecessor.
In 1981, following the Voyager spacecraft's flight past Saturn, scientists noticed a resemblance between one of the planet's moons, Mimas, and the Death Star.
For a list of Star Wars themed cocktails from the Dark Side (including Obi-Rum, Wookie Fuzzball and Dark Vader), using Dark Matter Spiced Rum from Aberdeen, click the Death Star's Doppelgänger moon of Saturn, Mimas!
