The South Asian festival of lights, Diwali, will become a New York City public school holiday next year, Mayor Eric Adams announced, calling the moment a big victory for local families.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers celebrate Diwali, the festival of the triumph of light over darkness. They can now rejoice to see this celebration become a public holiday. This year, Diwali falls on a Sunday, November 12, so it is expected to be a school holiday for the first time in 2024.
Eric Adams said he was ” confidentthat New York Governor Kathy Hochul would sign the bill. According to him, this moment represents a symbolic declaration to those who feel excluded, and “⎢that they are⎢ part of this town”.
We now say that New York is for everyone. It doesn’t matter where you’re from – said Eric Adams
A request for recognition as a public holiday from the families
In New York, families have lobbied for the city’s public schools to close on several major religious or cultural holidays, joining existing holidays like Christmas, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. In 2015, the city announced the closure of schools in honor of two major Muslim holidays: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
Many South Asian and Indo-Caribbean parents were frustrated that Diwali was never added to the list. The holiday is one of the most important Hindu religious observances, and is also celebrated by many Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists.
This Monday, Jenifer Rajkumar, the ” sponsorof the bill in the Assembly, said the announcement was the result of decades of work and showed that Diwali “isn’t just a holiday”. Instead of that,“It’s an American holiday, and the South Asian community is part of American history”said Ms. Rajkumar, the first Hindu American and the first South Asian woman elected to state office in New York.
The 180-day school calendar was an obstacle
Adding Diwali to the school calendar faced a major hurdle: all schools must offer at least 180 days of instruction per year by state law. Thus, adding a holiday to the calendar requires replacing another celebration or removing one of the extra days that provide leeway in case of snow or other emergencies.
After Mayor Bill de Blasio, in office from 2014 to 2021, recognized the Lunar New Year and the two Muslim holy days as school holidays, he said the 180-day rule would prevent his administration from adding other dates, including Diwali, to the system calendar.
Lawmakers have begun to consider removing« Anniversary Day », which commemorates the city’s first Protestant Sunday schools. It falls in early June and dates back to the 1800s. But the bill they passed left it up to the city to decide.
2023-06-28 11:18:23
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