May the Fourth be with you
FORGET Team Edward and Team Jacob.
Michelle Podsiadly will always be Team Han.
The Twilight heart-throbs cannot hold a candle next to the captain of the Millennium Falcon.
Fans around Australia today celebrate an unofficial Star Wars fan day with May 4 - as in May the Fourth be with you - a play on words of the popular movie line "May the Force be with you".
It is considered a holiday by many fans around the world to celebrate Star Wars culture and to honour the films.
The force is particularly strong in the Mountain Creek woman, who balances full-time motherly duties with full-time university studies.
But today she will remember exactly why she fell in love with the beloved sci-fi series in the first place.
"I'm just a fan who grew up with the movies. I thought they were cool then, I still do today and I think they always will be," she said.
"My earliest memories were just watching the movies, and it just grew from there.
"Some of us just never grew out of it. Everyone has their own thing."
Ms Podsiadly said the unique array of characters was her main attraction to the series.
Her favourite is the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.
"He does evil good. He was definitely the coolest," she said.
Her collection of Star Wars goodies was humble at best, she said.
She has a lightsaber replica and action figures yet to be removed from original packaging, all the way down to a Darth Vader bedspread and character-themed Pez dispensers.
She's even introduced her two boys Indiana, 6, and Phoenix, 4, to the Star Wars mythology.
They love it as much as she does.
"They know Mum's collection isn't for playing with," she said.
"I've promised it for them when they're older, but they can't take it out of the box. I think they're eyeing off the lightsaber."
Star Wars facts
- The phrase 'May the Fourth be with you' dates back to 1979, on the day Margaret Thatcher was elected Britain's first woman prime minister. Her party took out a newspaper ad in the London Evening News that read "May the Fourth be with you, Maggie. Congratulations". Election day that year was May 4.
- Two brothers from England planned a Jedi church in 2008. Barney AKA Master Jonba Hehol and Daniel, Master Morda Hehol, said the UK Church of the Jedi would include sermons on the Force, light sabre training and meditation techniques.
- It was reported in 2001 that more than 70,000 Australians had identified themselves as Jedi, Jedi Knight or Jedi-related in that year's national census. It was a response from an email published before the census calling on Star Wars fans to state Jedi as their religion. They ended up being counted as "no religion".
