Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on December 17th, but fans were lining up for the beloved series as early as December 5th, according to an article by Jacopo Prisco for CNN. Fans pitched tents outside of the TCL Chinese Theater IMAX. None of them were lined up to buy tickets, as one of the rules while camping on the site was that they all had to have tickets. So why were they lining up?The Chinese Theater holds a lot of significance to the Star Wars fandom. The first movie was only booked in about 30 theaters because of skeptics who doubted the potential of the film. Instead, tons of people came to watch the film, especially at the Chinese Theater, in hopes to generate more news coverage. Ever since then, camping outside the Chinese became the norm with each release of a Star Wars film.

The lining up is done in a very orderly fashion thanks to liningup.net, a group of organizers who helped set up the lines in 1999, 2003, 2005, and now, 2015. There are a set of rules written on the website, such as that fans must clock in and out. Once the fans have a reached a total of 24 hours in line, they can receive a pair of tickets for the opening show at the TCL Chinese Theater.

Liningup.net partnered up with Starlight Children’s Foundation, which is “a charity that works towards improving the life and health of hospitalized or terminally ill kids and families around the world,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. This partnership was established in 1999, and has continued on for each release. While they are lined up, fans also have the opportunity to donate to the Starlight Children’s Foundation by texting “Jedi” or “Sith” to 80,000 to automatically donate five dollars. Not only that, liningup.net also provided line-up t-shirts for sale, with proceeds that all go towards the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

This tradition isn’t just a silly thing. It encourages other fans to help and befriend each other, donate towards a good cause, and overall brings people together over something they love.

<Celestine Seo, New Covenant Academy 9th Grade>