Yesterday, Sunday November 17th, was the annual celebration of the fictional holiday of Life Day, which originated in the infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. And I took a trip down to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland to see what was going on for this year’s Life Day festivities.
The first thing I had to do when walking into Black Spire Outpost yesterday afternoon was pick up the new “wood-carved” Wookiee Life Day popcorn bucket. On the front is the visage of a Wookiee (possibly Chewbacca?) and on the back is the Tree of Life from Kashyyyk, complete with the three words “family,” “joy,” and “harmony.” The top of the “log” opens up so you can store your popcorn (or whatever else you like) inside.
Next we swung by Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities to check out the new “Ren” helmet and lightsaber from Marvel’s comic-book miniseries Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren. The helmet is very shiny and reflective, while the lightsaber offers a unique design and comes in a collector’s box with a variant edition of issue #1 from the aforementioned miniseries.
Being a big fan of The Rise of Kylo Ren (which was written by one of my favorite current Star Wars authors, Charles Soule), I had to pick up the helmet as well. The lightsaber is a bit more expensive, so that may just go on my wish list for now.
I liked how the Wookiee popcorn bucket looks among Lunacca’s other creations at The Wooden Wookiee wood-carving booth in the marketplace.
Another new Legacy Lightsaber available at Dok-Ondar’s is the one belonging to the Wookiee Padawan Gungi from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
And over in the Jewels of Bith gift shop, there were a few assorted items available for Life Day 2024, including a nice hoodie and a very pleasant light-up ornament, plus a couple limited-edition Star Wars pins.
Toydarian Toymaker has the new in-universe Nubs plush, as well.
Laughing Place ran a whole article last week detailing this year’s specialty food offerings for Life Day at Galaxy’s Edge, but the only one I actually got to see a friend trying (I have a limited diet due to a food allergy) was the Kashyyyk Cake, pictured below. They said it was delicious!
But the big moment of the evening came when all the gathered Star Wars fans made their way through Black Spire Outpost to the Millennium Falcon, where they posed for a group photo together in celebration of the holiday. This was preceded by the usual singing of Star Wars-themed holiday carols on the other side of the themed land.
Wearing red Wookiee robes, clutching glowing orbs, and many wielding lightsabers, the fans once again used Life Day as a reason to come together and commemorate the community of the Star Wars fandom.
Life Day is celebrated every November 17th at Disneyland in Southern California.