New York: US: Diwali likely to be school holiday in New York City as bill awaits governor nod

Last week, the New York state legislature passed a bill to make Diwali a school holiday in the city before it was adjourned. Both the NY senate and assembly voted in favour of the bill before they ended their session on June 10; the bill now goes to governor Kathy Hochul who is expected to sign it to make it a law. Two earlier attempts to pass the legislation in 2021 and 2022 had failed.
Assembly woman Jenifer Rajkumar (Democrat), who had introduced the Bill, said it fulfilled the dream of the South Asian community when she passed her historic bill (A.7769) to designate Diwali as a New York City public school holiday. It was the final victory in a fight spanning over two decades for Diwali, one of the holiest days of the year for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, to become a school holiday, she said.
Even though Diwali is celebrated in the top echelons in Washington DC, including the US Capitol and the White House, it has not yet been designated as a national holiday. While Pennsylvania became the first state in the US to declare the festival of Diwali as a state holiday, US Congresswoman Grace Meng introduced a bill in the US Congress in May this year to declare Diwali, the festival of lights, a federal holiday. If passed by the US Congress and signed by the president, The Diwali Day Act, would make the festival of lights the 12th federally recognised holiday in the United States.
Officially, Pennsylvania became the first US state to have declared Diwali a public holiday in April this year. The rest of America is yet to recognise the festival of lights as an official holiday. Pennsylvania was, in fact, ahead of other US states, such as California, Texas, Illinois, New York and New Jersey, with large Indian-American population.
“Diwali is one of the most important days of the year for billions of people across the globe, and for countless families and communities in Queens, New York, and the rest of the United States,” Congresswoman Grace Meng told reporters during a virtual news conference soon after introducing the Diwali Bill in the House of Representatives.
Meanwhile, Michigan state representative Ranjeev Puri, whose parents immigrated to the US from Amritsar, has introduced a bill last week to establish Diwali, Vaishakhi, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-al-Adha and Lunar New Year as state-recognised holidays in Michigan.
Assemblywoman Rajkumar, the first South Asian woman and first Hindu American elected to New York state office, had over the last few months taken on the leadership in developing the blueprint for the Diwali school holiday dream to become a reality. Last October, she announced her plan to pass the legislation establishing the Diwali school holiday, hosting a press conference with New York City mayor Eric Adams and schools chancellor David Banks. Over the ensuing months, Rajkumar forged a diverse coalition of stakeholders of all backgrounds across the state for a united effort in the push to recognise Diwali as a school holiday. She brought hundreds to rally in Albany, and engaged with all city and state stakeholders to secure unanimous support from New York City mayor Adams, assembly speaker Carl Heastie, schools chancellor Banks, the United Federation of Teachers, the entire New York City council and New Yorkers of every faith and background, according to a press release by her office.
New York City mayor Adams said it is long overdue to say to “our Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist students and communities that, we see you, we acknowledge you”. “The inclusiveness of this city is extremely significant and this is our opportunity to say that in a loud way.”
Upon the bill’s passage, the assemblywoman echoed the mayor on the Assembly floor: “Tonight our legislature says to hundreds of thousands of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain Americans across the state, ‘We see you’. Tonight we say to New Yorkers from India, Guyana, Trinidad, Nepal and Bangladesh, ‘We recognize you’. From now on, the largest school jurisdiction in the entire country will recognise the Diwali school holiday. Tonight we proudly say that Diwali is an American holiday — and that the South Asian community is part of the American story.” As the largest school system in the country, New York City schools’ designation of a Diwali holiday will set an example for districts nationwide, according to Rajkumar.
Senator Joseph Addabbo, the bill’s Senate sponsor, said, “I am thankful to my colleagues in the senate who supported the passage of my bill (S7475) designating Diwali a school holiday in New York City before the Senate legislative session ended. If approved by governor Hochul, New York’s growing South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities will now have the same recognition and accommodation afforded to those that observe other holidays. I admire the significance of Diwali, to show how light can overpower darkness, good can overcome evil, a message celebrating positivity and encouragement. It was an honour to work with my colleague and friend Assemblymember Rajkumar, whose compassion and dedication for her constituents and Diwali is the reason our city will witness this school holiday.”