Thursday, December 26, 2013

The Festival of Lightsabers begins today!


Just a quick break from baseball cards to share word of this joyous event I've celebrated the final week of December every year since 2007. 

The Festival of Lightsabers is the tradition of watching a Star Wars film each day between December 26 and 31. It's a terrific way to beat the post-Christmas blues and kick up the holiday season during that lull between Christmas and New Years. Hey, great excuse to experience the Star Wars saga in a special way!


The traditional schedule is as follows:

Dec 26: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Dec 27: Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Dec 28: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Dec 29: Episode IV: A New Hope
Dec 30: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Dec 31: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi



Modifications are allowed however. For instance, one year you can watch the original theatrical versions of the trilogy, and the next year you can mix it up with the "special edition" newer versions. Also, it is permitted to swap the prequels with other Star Wars related entertainment (because really, suffering through The Phantom Menace every frickin' year is simply asking too much!) For instance, in place of a prequel you could watch the animated Clone Wars series, the Star Wars Holiday Special, or even something like the Family Guy or Robot Chicken Star Wars specials if you like. The prequels can also be made more tolerable by playing them along with Rifftrax commentary or watching fan edit versions. If you get busy and have to skip a day, it is permitted, though not encouraged, to "double up" with 2 films in a day, or even bump the festival a day, thereby concluding on January 1st.

So those are the basics. I encourage everyone to take part this year and hopefully make it an annual tradition of your own!

4 comments:

  1. Have you tried machete order?
    http://static.nomachetejuggling.com/machete_order.html

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    1. Hmm.. hadn't heard of that before. So: New Hope, Empire, Clones, Sith, Jedi.
      Yeah, sounds promising to me. I think we'll try that for this year's Festival. Was planning to skip Phantom Menace this year anyway. Thanks for the head's up, Bo!

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  2. I love this. If I didn't watch all 6 episodes over my Thanksgiving break, I'd definitely be in. The machete order sounds really good. It'd be awesome to go back in time and watch it for the first time in that order.

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  3. Bo beat me to it. I was going to suggest Machete as well.

    Don't forget to occasionally watch the old Ewok made-for-TV movies too.

    JT, The Writer's Journey

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