Leading mayoral candidates Bill de Blasio (center) and Joe Lhota both vowed to add two Muslim holidays to the public school calendar. Now advocates like Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (left) are clamoring for recognition of other religious and ethnic holidays, such as the Chinese New Year. Here, de Blasio speaks to Chinese-American community leaders on Mott Street.
At this rate, city kids will be in school until the end of July.
Now that leading mayoral candidates Bill de Blasio and Joe Lhota have both vowed to add two Muslim holidays to the public school calendar, advocates for other religious and ethnic groups are clamoring for their days to be recognized too.
PHOTOS: NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE BILL DE BLASIO
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver jumped into the brewing holy war Friday, saying the city should consider giving kids the day off for the Chinese New Year.
DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images
Members of the Chinese community perform a lion dance as they celebrate the Chinese New Year in Kolkata on Feb. 10. The Chinese New Year and the holy day of Diwali have entered the discussion of public school holidays.
“I think the city has to recognize (Chinese New Year),” said Silver, a Democrat whose district includes Chinatown in lower Manhattan. “We don’t want to take away from the learning days, but we have to adjust the calendar appropriately to include all of the major populations that we have.”
PHOTOS: NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE JOSEPH LHOTA
There are currently at least two bills in Albany that would give city school kids extra time off.
One would close schools on the Chinese New Year. The other would close on the two Muslim Eid holidays that Lhota and de Blasio want to recognize: Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, which celebrates the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail.
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio (seen here in a campaign flyer) has said that he supports adding the Chinese New Year, but his campaign wouldn't comment on the holy day of Diwali, a festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains.
RELATED: CHIARA DE BLASIO RESPONDS TO LHOTA’S ATTACKS IN NEW AD
Neither bill has garnered much support, but Silver expects they’ll both be looked at again now that there’s a change coming to City Hall. The bills also wouldn’t be needed if the new mayor wanted to simply add the holidays to the calendar.
Also jumping into the vacation fray is City Councilman Daniel Dromm, a Queens Democrat who represents ethnically diverse Jackson Heights.
RELATED: OY, WHAT A DAY! JOE LHOTA SCREWS UP TWICE
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
De Blasio (center) and Lhota vowed to add the two Muslim holidays, and politicians such as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (third from left) and City Councilman Daniel Dromm have also jumped into the vacation fray.
Dromm introduced a resolution in July to close school on the holy day of Diwali, a festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains.
A spokesman for Lhota said he’d consider adding other holidays. De Blasio has said he supports adding the Chinese New Year, but his campaign wouldn’t comment on Diwali.
RELATED: DE BLASIO, LHOTA: CLOSE SCHOOLS ON MUSLIM HOLIDAYS
Mayor Bloomberg has resisted adding holidays to avoid clashes in a city of immigrants. “When you have a city as diverse as New York, you simply cannot
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new...490201#ixzz2iAw469Hs
