New York state lawmakers are close to clearing a path for Diwali and Lunar New Year to become official school holidays, but several key points remain undecided and time is running short.
With the state’s 2023 legislative session scheduled to end this week, lawmakers are hashing out details on a bill that would add the two holidays to the school calendar, a measure South and East Asian communities have been pushing for years.
It’s not a done deal, however.
Some disagreements remain among lawmakers, including whether Diwali should replace Brooklyn-Queens Day — a longstanding day off in early June — on the New York City school calendar. Another point of tension is whether the additional holidays should apply statewide or just in the five boroughs, whose leaders already recognize Lunar New Year on the school calendar but have not yet added Diwali.
“I feel very confident that both Diwali and the Asian Lunar New Years will be recognized statewide as holidays,” said Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee. “Precisely what the details are — that is still being hashed out.”
Diwali, known as the festival of lights, is recognized by those of the Hindu, Sikh and Jain faiths, as well as some Buddhists. More than 200,000 New York City residents celebrate Diwali, according to Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Queens), an Indian American of the Hindu faith who is helping lead the effort to recognize it as a school holiday. The holiday falls in either October or November each year.
The Lunar New Year, meanwhile, is one of the most important celebrations in many cultures in East and Central Asia, including China, marking the first new moon of the lunar calendar.
The effort to recognize both on the state’s calendar received a huge boost late last month. That’s when Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) issued a statement saying the Assembly intended to pass a bill to observe them “as holidays in New York state before the close of our legislative session.”
The statement raised eyebrows among school officials across the state, in part because it went further than legislation that was already proposed — which focused specifically on New York City. But Heastie also noted the effort would require discussions about how it would affect the school year calendar.
Under state law, school districts — including New York City’s sprawling system — have to provide 180 days of instruction or risk giving up their state funding.
Districts have leeway to determine which holidays they do or do not recognize, so long as they meet the 180 days. But New York City has long been butting up against the 180 days in its school calendar, particularly after adding Lunar New Year and the Muslim holy days of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
“We get to a point where something else probably needs to give sooner rather than later, because at some point if we continue down this path, there’s no flexibility or options within a school district’s calendar,” said Brian Fessler, director of government relations for the New York State School Boards Association.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams had previously thrown his support behind Rajkumar’s bill, which would clear the way for the city’s schools to recognize Diwali by eliminating Brooklyn-Queens Day from state law.
Rajkumar said recognizing Diwali would mean much more to Indian Americans and other South Asian communities than a day off from school.
“For hundreds of thousands of South Asian New Yorkers, this is the government saying: We recognize you, we see you, and we hear you,” she said.
But eliminating Brooklyn-Queens Day, the first Thursday of June, is drawing concern from some — but not all — lawmakers who call the borough home.
Also known as Anniversary Day, Brooklyn-Queens Day dates back to the early 19th century, marking the establishment of the first Sunday religious school in the boroughs. Brooklyn-Queens Day is written into state law. Since 2006, it’s been used in the city as a teacher and staff development day, with students getting the day off.
“There are some legislators who hesitate to remove this day,” Liu said. “I think that it’s more important to have official recognition of days that are actually very important to people, including important to their religious faith.”
The legislative session at the Capitol is scheduled to end Thursday, though lawmakers could easily extend it into Friday.
Spokespeople for Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said the Diwali and Lunar New Year measure remained under negotiation as of Monday afternoon.
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