By Sadef Ali Kully
Since the mayor announced Lunar New Year and two Islamic holy days will be observed as public school holidays, City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and community leaders are speaking out to the city’s Board of Education on behalf of Queens residents who want the largely Hindu holy day Diwali to follow.
Dozens of parents gathered to make their feelings known at the Sarvamangala Shri Saneeswara Temple, at 225th Street in Queens Village Monday. They were joined by Dromm; City Council candidate for District 23 Ali Najmi, who arranged the event; and Hindu community leaders to show their support for making Diwali a school holiday.
“It is the holiday of lights. We celebrate bringing the light from within, spreading the light to others through wisdom,” Arun Gossai, the spiritual leader for the Chinmaya Mission-NY Chapter in Ozone Park, said.
Almost 60 percent of New York’s Hindu population lives in Queens, according to the 2010 American Community Survey. Buddhists, Sikhs (a pantheistic religion) and Jains (an ancient religion from India) also celebrate Diwali for historical and spiritual reasons.
According to the Diwali Coalition of New York City, an estimated 25,000 devotees celebrate Diwali at the Ganesh Temple in Flushing every year.
“I actually do believe that by making Diwali a school holiday we are going to teach children a lesson about acceptance and tolerance that should be in our public school system,” Dromm said.
“I remember when Rosh Hashanah came into the school and teachers explained what the Jewish holiday was about,” he said. “Just like now teachers will explain what Eid [the Muslim holiday] is about and what Lunar New Year is about—just like we have Christmas celebrations in the schools, we should also have Diwali celebrations in the schools.
He added, “And just by doing that we teach that lesson of tolerance and acceptance to our communities.”
Dromm said the main argument is that there just are not enough days on the school calendar, but he contended it would not be difficult for the Board of Education to reconfigure the calendar to add another holiday. He pointed out that most of the holidays are based on lunar calendars and may not always fall on school days. For example, this year Eid-ul-Fitr is in July and falls on a weekend, and he said it is very rare for all holidays to fall within the same school year.
Najmi, a Democratic candidate for City Council District 23, said that growing up in Queens, he attended Hindu and/or Sikh celebrations the same as he did Muslim celebrations. Najmi said he was a strong supporter of the coalition that fought to get Muslim holidays on the public school calendar.
“It is the right thing to do and it is the New York thing to do. New York has a wonderful tradition of adapting to the needs of new and growing communities—let’s continue that tradition by adding Diwali to the school calendar.”
Najmi said New York is home to well over 250,000 adherents of the Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist faiths and that their recognition of Diwali as a public school holiday will be an important acknowledgement of their countless contributions.
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
