A few months ago I wrote about a campaign to make Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha public school holidays. Our commenters agreed that they should become holidays:

• cellyham wrote, “As a teacher, I constantly felt like I didn’t have enough time, or that my lessons were interrupted. However, I did see how important it was to the Guyanese to have their religion honored and publicly respected.”
• Iftikhar Ahmad wrote, “Muslims in the west ought to be recognised as a western community, not as an alien culture.”
• lejla wrote, “Public schools get off for the Jewish holidays, but most *MOST* jewish kids go to private school anyway. So there is really no need to have everyone suffer- Muslims are a growing population and need to be accomadated.”

Lunar New Year celebration on Main Street, Flushing

Well, I just read an article from Korea Times New York about a group of Korean Americans who are campaigning to get the school day off for Lunar New Year, the most important holiday of the year for many Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese people.

Mrs. Sang-hee Kim, who heads the PTA at PS 203, said, “Other ethnic groups are granted days off for their religious holidays. For instance, Jewish teachers and students have several free days each year to celebrate and observe Jewish festivals. But Korean students and other Asian students have never been granted any school holiday on their festival days. It doesn’t really make sense that Asian students cannot celebrate the biggest festival of the year for Asian peoples with a single day off from school.”

I have heard that most students and workers in China get one or even two weeks off to celebrate every year. So one day, in comparison, doesn’t seem like too much to ask for.

While I do agree, I also wonder, in an ideal multicultural society, where we would draw the line in terms of what should be considered an official holiday. If the frequency of holidays became a problem in the future (and I’m sure some people think there are already too many days off), would it be possible to have a system for public school students and staff to somehow take optional holidays without repercussions and without falling behind in work?

What do you think? What’s the proper balance between honoring our cultures and getting down to business?