Jedi census phenomenon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Jedi census phenomenon was a grassroots movement in 2001 for citizens in a few English-speaking countries to record their religion as "Jedi" or "Jedi Knight" (after the fictitious religious order of Force-attuned knights in the Star Wars films) on the national census. Australian Star Wars Appreciation Society president Chris Brennan reported to The New Zealand Herald that while a minority were "true hard-core people that would believe the Jedi religion carte blanche", the majority of self-reported Jedi "either did so for a laugh or to poke borax[1] at the Government".[2] Other news reports also interpreted the exercise as a massive practical joke.

Contents

[edit] Origins

The campaign was loosely organized by circulating emails claiming that if enough people entered "Jedi", it would be recognized as an official religion by the government. The emails also implored people to report their religion as "Jedi", "because you love Star Wars" or "just to annoy people". Other reasons that have been suggested for this behaviour have included frivolity, a protest or mockery of the census or religion, or a simple desire to gain notoriety as someone who declared themselves as a Jedi. Some claim that it was a protest against government inquiry into one's religion, a matter some felt should remain private.

[edit] Impact

[edit] Australia

In Australia more than 70,000 people declared themselves members of the Jedi in the 2001 census. The Australian Bureau of Statistics issued an official press release[3] in response to media interest on the subject. The ABS announced that any answers that were Jedi-related in the religion question were to be classified as 'not defined' and stressed the social impact of making misleading or false statements on the census. However, an ABS spokesperson said that "further analysis of census responses has been undertaken since the release of census data on 17 June to separately identify the number of Jedi-related responses".[4]

It is believed that there is no numerical value that determines a religion per definition of the ABS, but there would need to be a belief system or philosophy as well as some form of institutional or organisational structure in place.[5] [6]

In the leadup to the 2006 census, there were some reports of the ABS hinting (without humor) that writing Jedi on the 2006 census could lead to a fine for providing 'false or misleading' information. This is despite previous admissions that they were 'fairly relaxed' about the issue in 2001 and that nobody had been prosecuted in at least 15 years.[7]

[edit] New Zealand

Over 53,000 people listed themselves as Jedi in New Zealand. New Zealand has the highest per capita population of reported Jedi in the world, with 1.5% marking "Jedi" as their religion on the census[citation needed]. Statistics New Zealand treated Jedi responses as "Answer understood, but will not be counted". However, if Jedi were counted it would be the second largest religion in New Zealand. The percentages of religious affiliations were:

  • Christian: 58.9%
  • No religion: 29.6%
  • Object to answering: 6.9%
  • Jedi: 1.5%
  • Buddhism: 1.2%
  • Hindu: 1.2%

[edit] Canada

In the Canada 2001 Census, some 20,000 people reported their religion as Jedi.[8]

[edit] England and Wales

It was confirmed prior to the census that citizens were not liable for a fine in relation to question 10 (on religion).[9] In England and Wales 390,000 people (0.7%) stated their religion as Jedi on their 2001 Census forms, surpassing Sikhism, Judaism, and Buddhism, and making it the fourth largest reported religion in the country. The highest percentages of such responses were typically in cities with high student populations).[10]; 4% of the population of Brighton claim to be Jedi. The percentages of religious affiliations were:

  • Christian: 72.0%
  • No religion: 14.8%
  • Chose not to respond: 7.7%
  • Muslim: 3.1%
  • Hindu: 1.1%
  • Jedi: 0.7%

Jedi is still not recognised as an "official" religion in any nation where the movement took place, and in fact there is no such concept in the United Kingdom. However, it was assigned its own code in the United Kingdom for census processing, the number 896, fittingly being Yoda's birth year [11]. Officials from the Office for National Statistics pointed out that this merely means that it has been registered as a common answer to the "religion" question. John Pullinger (Director of Reporting and Analysis for the Census) noted that many people who would otherwise not have completed a Census form did so solely to record themselves as Jedi, so this joke helped to improve the quality of the Census.

One possible reference to this phenomenon emerged in June 2005 when Jamie Reed, newly-elected Labour Member of Parliament for Copeland in Cumbria, declared himself to be a Jedi during his maiden speech. The statement, made in the context of an ongoing debate regarding an "Incitement to Religious Hatred" bill, was confirmed by Reed's office to be a joke instead of a serious statement of faith.

On November 16, 2006, two self-proclaimed Jedi delivered a protest letter to UN officials in recognition of the UN International Day of Tolerance. They requested that it be renamed the "UN Interstellar Day of Tolerance" and cited the 2001 UK Census showing 390,000 Jedi. [12]

[edit] Related movements

For the Australian census of 2006 there has been a movement for people to list their religion as 'Pastafarian', a reference to the parody religion the Flying Spaghetti Monster. [13]

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ The phrase "to poke borax at", also "to poke borack at", is an Australasian idiom of declining usage meaning "to ridicule". The phrase is of no apparent relation to borax, the chemical compound. Dennis, Anthony (November 8, 2003). Word rescuers sift for gems. Fairfax Digital. Retrieved on 2006-04-05.
  2. ^ Perrott, Alan (2002-08-31). Jedi Order lures 53,000 disciples. New Zealand Herald. Retrieved on 2006-04-05.
  3. ^ Census of Population and Housing - The 2001 Census, Religion and the Jedi. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved on 2006-04-05.
  4. ^ smh.com.au. May the farce be with you. Retrieved on 26 March 2006.
  5. ^ mrsa.com.au. Jedi followers need more than cyber support. Retrieved on 26 March 2006.
  6. ^ snopes. Retrieved on 7 August 2006.
  7. ^ smh.com.au. Come to your census - no kidding, they're serious. Retrieved on 29 August 2006.
  8. ^ canada.com. Some 20,000 Canadians worship at the altar of Yoda. Retrieved on 19 June 2006.
  9. ^ theregister.co.uk. UK Jedi get green light. Retrieved on 26 March 2006.
  10. ^ statistics.gov.uk. Ethnicity and Religion: Jedi. Retrieved on 20 November 2006.
  11. ^ Census of Population and Housing - The 2001 Census, Religion and the Jedi.
  12. ^ Jedi Knights demand Britain's fourth largest 'religion' receives recognition.
  13. ^ FSM - You know it makes Census. noodlynation.blogspot (July 25, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-07-27.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../j/e/d/Jedi_census_phenomenon.html"