BY JOSH ROGERS | Students won’t have to play hooky next year to celebrate Lunar New Year. The mayor and chancellor announced on Tuesday that they are adding the holiday to the coming school year.
“We pledged to families we would keep working until we made Lunar New Year an official school holiday, and today we are keeping that promise,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement on June 23. “We are proud to be the largest school district in the nation to recognize the heritage of our Asian-American community by recognizing Lunar New Year.”
The announcement during the last week of school appeared to come as a surprise since advocates pressing for inclusion of the Chinese New Year had not appeared optimistic that the holiday would be added to the 2015-16 year. Many were disappointed earlier this year when the mayor did not include Lunar New Year when he announced the addition of two Muslim holidays to the school year, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
There will be no school on Mon., Feb. 8, 2016, to celebrate the holiday. The city was able to maintain the mandated 180-day schedule by consolidating two half-days for administrative work into one day.
Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña called the addition of Lunar New Year “a welcome teachable moment in the classroom for our students to learn about the contributions of various cultures.”
The Department of Education’s press release included statements from politicians from all over the city praising the decision, including several who represent at least part of Manhattan’s Chinatown: Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, state Senator Daniel Squadron and City Councilmember Margaret Chin. Chin was a sponsor of the bill that supported the designation.
Some schools in the neighborhood reported absence rates of greater than 80 percent on Lunar New Year. In a statement, Chin said 15 percent of public school students across the city observe the holiday and that the announcement “gives Lunar New Year the respect and recognition it has long deserved.”
Squadron was among the politicians who joined the mayor at P.S. 20 in Flushing, Queens, to announce the day’s inclusion as a school holiday.
“I’m thrilled our hard work to include Lunar New Year as a school holiday led to Mayor de Blasio’s announcement today — and in time to ring in the Year of the Monkey,” Squadron said. “For years, we pushed so that those who celebrate Lunar New Year are no longer forced to choose between class and their most important cultural holiday.
“The mayor’s pledge and today’s addition of Lunar New Year to the school calendar send a strong and meaningful message that as the city changes, the school calendar must change with it. It’s been a long push, and today our voices are heard.”
