NYC Residents Want Diwali, Eid, Chinese New Year Holidays Added to School Calendar

What was the 2013 debate about?

The debate was on for adding two additional school holidays for Muslim festivals in the upcoming mayoral election in New York.

CBS New York reported: Councilman Robert Jackson (D-7th) — the only Muslim on the City Council — had been pushing for days off in the school calendar for Muslim holidays for years, sponsoring a resolution that passed the City Council unanimously back in 2009.

He had called for adding Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, which honors the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his first-born son Ismail.

"If this is the melting pot of our great society, it has to be flexible enough in order to move in a direction of inclusiveness, and that's all that we're asking for," Jackson said.

What's the other side of the argument?

Is it really a good idea to include religious festivals in the holiday schedule of schools? America is a country of numerous religions — religious activities should be privately celebrated at home. If Eid is declared a holiday, Hindus would want a holiday on Diwali and Holi, Chinese families would want the week off at their new year, and so on. It is in the interest of children to keep religion out of the holiday schedule. Schools need to be open for about 183 days — off days should be part of either national holidays or the winter, spring, or summer breaks. Too many one-day breaks interfere with school activity.

At the time, many US schools asked parents to fill out surveys about the upcoming year's calendar — the argument ran that parents should vote for longer winter or spring breaks rather than more one-day breaks.

How did it actually turn out?

History answered the debate decisively. Bill de Blasio won the 2013 mayoral election, and in March 2015 he announced that Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha would be added to the New York City public school calendar — a promise kept. Lunar New Year was added to the school calendar in 2016, and Diwali became an official NYC public school holiday in 2023 (announced by Mayor Eric Adams, with the first Diwali school holiday falling in October 2023). One by one, the holidays in question made it onto the calendar — by inclusion, not by longer winter breaks.

Editor's note: the 2013 parent-survey link from the original article has been removed, as the survey is long expired.