Diwali school holiday fight resumes in Albany

Several months after the mayor announced that he’d be looking to Albany to make Diwali an official New York City public school holiday, a number of South Asian residents from Queens and beyond rallied in the state capitol building in support of a bill that would do just that.

The rally was organized around a bill from a number of Queens lawmakers, including State Senator John Liu and Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, that would eliminate Brooklyn-Queens Day, otherwise known as Anniversary Day, as a school holiday and replace it with a day for students and their families to celebrate Diwiali.

The fight to establish Diwali not only as a school holiday, but one that is recognized by New York City’s municipal government has been underway for decades.

In 2002, Weprin and Liu, who were both city councilmembers at the time, co-sponsored legislation to eliminate alternate side parking during Diwali. In the legislature, State Senator Kevin Thomas, who represents a portion of Nassau County, carried a similar Diwali school holiday bill for four years but didn’t see it pass. A Diwali school holiday bill introduced by Rajkumar in 2021 never made it out of committee.

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