May the Fourth Be With You: The internet celebrates Star Wars Day with new Twitter symbols and memes

Peter 'Chewbacca' Mayhew marks day of pun with picture from set of new film

A still from the first trailer of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (YouTube)

It may seem baffling that a simple date-based pun has turned into a hashtag and then a holiday, but internet users around the world are spreading Star Wars-themed goodwill with the phrase: “May the fourth be with you.”

Twitter itself has done its part, setting up new symbols for Star Wars Day-related hashtags. Write #StarWarsDay or #MayThe4thBeWithYou and your message will be adorned with a miniature Stormtrooper.

Use the variant #MayTheFourthBeWithYou, and your additional characters will be rewarded with C-3PO’s face.

More than 43,000 tweets have already been sent out which include the phrase #StarWarsDay – and with Britons conveniently having a bank holiday Monday to dedicate more time to Twitter activities and the US yet to wake up (at time of writing), we can expect many, many more.

Some famous names have also got in on the act – the actor Peter Mayhew, the man behind the Chewbacca mask, tweeted a couple of new pictures from the set of the next Star Wars film.

Many people have expressed added excitement that this 4 May serves as a reminder of the new instalment of the franchise coming later this year – Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens is out in cinemas on 18 December.

And George Osborne also plans to use Star Wars Day to announce that the planned eighth film is to be filmed in the UK, with production based at Pinewood Studios.

There have been plenty of excellent #StarWarsDay tweets already, but it’s going to take a lot to beat this one.

For those who didn’t get it, that’s a reference to this year’s viral phenomenon, “the dress”.