New York City is forging ahead with plans to make Diwali a school holiday, Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday, following months of pressure from South Asian and Indo-Caribbean advocates.
In a press conference at Department of Education headquarters, officials from the Adams administration announced state legislation that will make Diwali a school holiday as soon as next year. Queens Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar’s bill proposes adding Diwali to the school calendar and removing a little-celebrated holiday, Brooklyn-Queens Day.
City officials had pointed to state regulations requiring at least 180 days in school a year as an obstacle to making Diwali a school holiday.
If successful, the new school holiday will fulfill a campaign pledge by Adams.
“It’s important for not only the young people who celebrate and who honor Diwali but it’s important for all students,” Schools Chancellor David Banks said. “When we talk about the education of New York City students, we have to recognize the whole world lives here.”
Diwali, a spiritual celebration of light over darkness, is observed globally by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains. It falls this year on Oct. 24.
Rajkumar described Brooklyn-Queens Day as “an obscure and antiquated day created in the 1800s.” It dates back to an 1829 parade celebrating the founding of the First Sunday School in Brooklyn and Queens.
“We’ve done it with Eid, we’ve done it with Lunar New Year. We do it with so many other days and so many other cultures that we acknowledge. It is long overdue to say to our Hindu, Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist students and communities, that we see you, we acknowledge you,” Adams said on Thursday.
Supporters of the move had been frustrated with Adams ahead of the holiday this year, saying he’d failed to fulfill his promise.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio added the Lunar New Year to the school calendar in 2015, months after adding two Muslim holy days, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
“For over two decades, South Asians and Indo-Caribbeans in New York have been fighting for the Diwali school holiday,” said Rajkumar.
“To New Yorkers from India, Guyana, Trinidad, the Indo-Caribbean, Nepal, Bangladesh, and across the South Asian diaspora — we see you.”
Dr. Neeta Jain, a Queens Democratic district leader who has long pushed for the commemoration of Diwali as a school holiday, said “our long wait got honored.”
“Children every year were choosing…between school and their celebration, while other children were celebrating their festivals with their families,” Jain said.
“I really don’t have words to express my feelings, but I will tell you that I’m just feeling so great.”
