State passes Diwali school holiday bill but punts to city to figure out details
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The Diwali Holiday bill passing marks a major milestone for advocates, many from Queens, who have pushed the holiday for years. File photo via Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar/Twitter
By Ryan Schwach
The state legislature passed a bill in the final moments of its legislative session over the weekend, creating a Diwali school holiday in the city’s public schools. Though historic on its face, the final legislation varies greatly from its original iteration and ultimately leaves it up to the city to figure out the details.
The passage of the bill, which was voted through unanimously, marks the first step in what has been a decade-long fight to get the city’s public schools to formally recognize the holiday celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists.
But the final version of the legislation, unlike its original form introduced at the start of the year, does not provide details for how the holiday is to be worked into the city’s public school calendar, effectively asking the city to figure out the solution themselves.
Advocates behind the push to create the holiday say that while they are thrilled by the bill’s passage, they are still confused as to why the process for making a Diwali school holiday took the form that it ultimately did and are anxious to see the holiday finally marked on the school calendar. Still, they remain confident the city will pick up where Albany left off, and give the approximately 200,000 New York City public school students who observe the holiday the day off to celebrate with their families.
Queens Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, who was behind the legislation, declared “victory” in a statement released over the weekend.
“I was proud to lead the movement for Diwali to be a school holiday in New York City,” Rajkumar said. “Saturday at midnight, the New York State legislature came together and spoke with one voice to say that Diwali will forever be enshrined in law as a school holiday in New York City.”
“We made history,” she added.
Rajkumar was not available for further comment on Monday, but her fellow Queens colleagues who had a hand in its passing also applauded the bill soon to make its way to the governor’s desk.
“It's great, it's something I've been fighting for for a long time,” said Assemblymember David Weprin.
Senator Joseph Addabbo, the bill’s Senate sponsor, was also excited the bill finally got passed after years of advocates’ campaigns.
“I just think that the Diwali message is a real positive one,” Addabbo said. “I said it on the floor of the Senate at three in the morning – it’s light over darkness, it's good over evil, it's overcoming challenges. It's such a positive message.”
Last fall, Mayor Eric Adams, Rajkumar and Schools Chancellor David Banks announced their intention to create the holiday in the city’s public schools. There was only one challenge, they said – the city’s public schools have to hit a minimum of 180 instructional school days, and if a holiday were to be added, another would have to be eliminated.
They suggested slashing Brooklyn-Queens Day – also known as Anniversary Day – and replacing it with Diwali.
The original piece of legislation introduced by Rajkumar proposed eliminating Brooklyn-Queens Day, which had initially been created as a school holiday by the state legislature. It made no mention of swapping the holiday with Diwali specifically.
The bill that passed over the weekend does not eliminate Brooklyn-Queens Day, only establishing Diwali as a New York City school holiday. The bill places the decision on how the holiday will fit into the school’s calendar back in the hands of New York City and the Department of Education.
“To make the governor and the mayor and all the legislators agree, it is basically giving it to the city saying, ‘Hey, we did need this as a holiday, figure it out,’” Addabbo told the Eagle. “Leave it up to the city to figure them out in terms of the 180-day requirement.”
In the lead up to the bill’s passage, several senators objected to the original language of the bill, saying that they wanted to keep Brooklyn-Queens Day, a Protestant holiday that dates back to 1829, on the books, Addabbo said.
“There were some people who were passionate about Brooklyn-Queens Day, they didn't want to give it up,” Addabbo said, declining to specify which legislators made the argument.
“They're passionate about their borough, they didn't want to give up something and they spoke out,” he added. “I'm not going to say that they were the majority, but they did raise the issue.”
Weprin, a co-sponsor on the Assembly bill, was not one of the Brooklyn-Queens Day advocates.
“I don't think anybody really knew what Brooklyn-Queens Day was all about,” he said. “It's not something that people…‘Oh yeah, Brooklyn-Queens Day is coming up.’ It's really very few people.”
In the end, the pushback was enough to force a change in the bill’s language, and pass the details of the holiday back to the city and Adams, whose office did not respond to questions on Monday.
A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Education did not comment on how the legislation could be implemented, but did say they were pleased that the bill was passed.
“We are pleased that the New York State legislature has joined Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks in recognizing the importance of adding Diwali as a school holiday,” DOE spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said. “We appreciate the partnerships required to advance these important measures forward and look forward to celebrating the growing diversity of NYCPS staff and students.”
The mayor shared his support for the legislation on Sunday on social media.
“Like our city itself, [New York City’s public schools are] a melting pot and celebrating all our stories and holidays will only make the community stronger,” Adams said. “Proud to stand with [Rajkumar] in this movement.”
Aminta Kilawan-Narine, the co-founder of Sadhana Coalition of Progressive Hindus, and long-time advocate for the holiday, called it a “celebratory moment”
“I am thrilled,” she said. “I'm so happy that the decades of work by community organizers and elders and elected officials actually materialized into this moment in our community's history.”
However, the last minute changes to the bill made her question why the city just didn’t take it upon themselves to create the holiday in the first place, a criticism made of the plan in the fall.
“It just leads me back to this question of, well, the city could have done this to begin with, and I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer,” she said. “It's interesting though, because it does take me back to that day when there was the press conference and the announcement which was, ‘We've come up with a solution, and the solution is to swap out Brooklyn-Queens Day with Diwali.’”
However, Kilawan-Narine strongly believes that in the end, Diwali will be recognized as a school holiday, as the initial bill intended.
“I have full confidence that the city is going to figure it out,” she said. “I'm definitely positive. I don't think it would have gotten as far if there wasn't a political appetite to see it actually happen.”
Addabbo agrees, saying that Adams has made a priority of marking the holiday.
“The mayor has made enough statements about doing it administratively,” he said. “Now that we have codified it in terms of statutory language, hopefully the governor signs it.”
But even if the city works the holiday into the calendar, there will be no Diwali school holiday this coming school year. The holiday falls on a Sunday this year.
