The response to MoCo's calendar change shows why the FCPS religious holidays will never go away

[Anonymous]

We haven't had a new calendar thread in a few hours, so I thought that I better pick up the slack.

Our sister district across the river is struggling with making up snow days, and they are proposing to use Eid al-Fitr to accomplish that. Obviously, that is rubbing some people the wrong way.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/02/15/muslim-holiday-makeup-day-backlash/

Zainab Chaudry, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Maryland, said Eid al-Fitr should be granted the same respect as Judeo-Christian holidays like Yom Kippur and Easter, which are designated non-instruction days in both school districts. Chaudry said it is unfair to put families in the position of choosing between religious observance and school instruction.

She called on the districts to amend their makeup plans.

“Our holidays are not expendable. Our communities do not get to decide whether or not they want to observe the holiday based on circumstances beyond their control, including the weather,” Chaudry said. “Our communities deserve the same level of dignity and respect as all other communities.”

...

Glass said he has been in contact with members of Maryland’s legislature, and is urging for a change that could prevent religious holidays from being used to make up for lost instructional time.


In other words, the calendar isn't going to change. The only realistic days to remove (based on the 25/26 and 26/27 calendars) are Veterans Day and Presidents Day. The next options are the paired Teacher Workday and Staff Development/School Planning days at the end of each Quarter. It is pointless to advocate for the removal of some or all religious holidays.

[Anonymous]

If we want to remove religious holidays, it needs to be all. It isn’t right to leave in Christian holidays but then view Muslim holidays as expendable. A new calendar system where only federal holidays are honored and no religious holidays are included at all would work, but it would require people who are very used to having Christian holidays honored to accept the change. No two week winter break. Christmas Eve in school, only Christmas Day off for the federal holidays and back on 12/26. Spring break untied from Easter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we want to remove religious holidays, it needs to be all. It isn’t right to leave in Christian holidays but then view Muslim holidays as expendable. A new calendar system where only federal holidays are honored and no religious holidays are included at all would work, but it would require people who are very used to having Christian holidays honored to accept the change. No two week winter break. Christmas Eve in school, only Christmas Day off for the federal holidays and back on 12/26. Spring break untied from Easter.

+1

Which will never happen so we get what we get for now.

[Anonymous]

So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we want to remove religious holidays, it needs to be all. It isn’t right to leave in Christian holidays but then view Muslim holidays as expendable. A new calendar system where only federal holidays are honored and no religious holidays are included at all would work, but it would require people who are very used to having Christian holidays honored to accept the change. No two week winter break. Christmas Eve in school, only Christmas Day off for the federal holidays and back on 12/26. Spring break untied from Easter.

There are no Christian holidays on the FCPS calendar (except for the ridiculous Orthodox ones they added).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We haven't had a new calendar thread in a few hours, so I thought that I better pick up the slack.

Our sister district across the river is struggling with making up snow days, and they are proposing to use Eid al-Fitr to accomplish that. Obviously, that is rubbing some people the wrong way.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/02/15/muslim-holiday-makeup-day-backlash/

Zainab Chaudry, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Maryland, said Eid al-Fitr should be granted the same respect as Judeo-Christian holidays like Yom Kippur and Easter, which are designated non-instruction days in both school districts. Chaudry said it is unfair to put families in the position of choosing between religious observance and school instruction.

She called on the districts to amend their makeup plans.

“Our holidays are not expendable. Our communities do not get to decide whether or not they want to observe the holiday based on circumstances beyond their control, including the weather,” Chaudry said. “Our communities deserve the same level of dignity and respect as all other communities.”

...

Glass said he has been in contact with members of Maryland’s legislature, and is urging for a change that could prevent religious holidays from being used to make up for lost instructional time.


In other words, the calendar isn't going to change. The only realistic days to remove (based on the 25/26 and 26/27 calendars) are Veterans Day and Presidents Day. The next options are the paired Teacher Workday and Staff Development/School Planning days at the end of each Quarter. It is pointless to advocate for the removal of some or all religious holidays.

Easter is always on a Sunday, so he appears to have no idea what he's talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we want to remove religious holidays, it needs to be all. It isn’t right to leave in Christian holidays but then view Muslim holidays as expendable. A new calendar system where only federal holidays are honored and no religious holidays are included at all would work, but it would require people who are very used to having Christian holidays honored to accept the change. No two week winter break. Christmas Eve in school, only Christmas Day off for the federal holidays and back on 12/26. Spring break untied from Easter.

There are no Christian holidays on the FCPS calendar (except for the ridiculous Orthodox ones they added).

Christmas is at the center of the Winter Break and Spring Break is tied to Easter. FCPS tried to uncouple Spring Break from Easter but the Teachers who live in other counties threw a hissy fit because their counties kept Spring Break tied to Easter. Instead of the entire region realizing there was a problem with tying Spring Break to easter, FCPS caved. It was around that time that we got all of the other religious holidays added to the calendar and the current awful mess we have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

[Anonymous]

I'm a cultural Catholic, and think it's extremely disrespectful to use other religions' Holy Days without also using Christian Holy Days.

This would all be solved if we had year-round school, with large breaks in every season. It would reduce brain drain. Daycare and camps would adjust to offering care for the 4 large breaks throughout the year. And it would mean people with means could spread out their travel across four seasons, which is so much nicer than cramming everything during the hot summer months. And people wouldn't get so distressed over missing a few days of school for weather...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we want to remove religious holidays, it needs to be all. It isn’t right to leave in Christian holidays but then view Muslim holidays as expendable. A new calendar system where only federal holidays are honored and no religious holidays are included at all would work, but it would require people who are very used to having Christian holidays honored to accept the change. No two week winter break. Christmas Eve in school, only Christmas Day off for the federal holidays and back on 12/26. Spring break untied from Easter.

There are no Christian holidays on the FCPS calendar (except for the ridiculous Orthodox ones they added).

Christmas is at the center of the Winter Break and Spring Break is tied to Easter. FCPS tried to uncouple Spring Break from Easter but the Teachers who live in other counties threw a hissy fit because their counties kept Spring Break tied to Easter. Instead of the entire region realizing there was a problem with tying Spring Break to easter, FCPS caved. It was around that time that we got all of the other religious holidays added to the calendar and the current awful mess we have.

Winter Break has nothing to do with Christmas, which is only one day and a Federal holiday anyway.

Yes, FCPS tried to show woke they were by decoupling Spring Break from Easter and failed horribly. But Easter is always on a Sunday and is not a school holiday.

The point is, people can scream and cry about Christian holidays, but they have no impact to the calendar.

[Anonymous]

I think that MCPS needs to move their winter break to align with the semester break. It works well at colleges that do that.

Then they can give a day off for Christmas, and write "Christmas" on the calendar.

Then the teacher work day could move down a week (because shockingly, teachers still need time to work), and students could have two short weeks in a row.

This will, of course, make people very happy. They'll get their holiday written on the calendar!!! They'll get to make a political statement by decoupling the teacher work day from Lunar New Year. Plus it will be cheaper to visit grandma in the first week of February.

[Anonymous]

Why not have some "floating" excused absences allowed for staff or students -- when it corresponds to religious holidays. But otherwise, keep the academic calendar rigorous with few days off.

Yes there will be some "honoring" of a religious holiday when the student doesn't actually practice that religion, some taking advantage. But it's got to be better than everyone being off from school for every conceivable religious holiday -- it's only going to worse (more religions, more holidays) going forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not have some "floating" excused absences allowed for staff or students -- when it corresponds to religious holidays. But otherwise, keep the academic calendar rigorous with few days off.

Yes there will be some "honoring" of a religious holiday when the student doesn't actually practice that religion, some taking advantage. But it's got to be better than everyone being off from school for every conceivable religious holiday -- it's only going to worse (more religions, more holidays) going forward.

No, no, no. That will never be enough for the liberals. The public schools must honor every religious holiday... for reasons?

It's funny - liberals fought (rightly) to get prayer and religion out of public school. Now they can't get enough religious holidays on the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a cultural Catholic, and think it's extremely disrespectful to use other religions' Holy Days without also using Christian Holy Days.

This would all be solved if we had year-round school, with large breaks in every season. It would reduce brain drain. Daycare and camps would adjust to offering care for the 4 large breaks throughout the year. And it would mean people with means could spread out their travel across four seasons, which is so much nicer than cramming everything during the hot summer months. And people wouldn't get so distressed over missing a few days of school for weather...

I am Catholic and looking at the FCPS calendar right now.

Here is what I see:

Christmas, Easter, and Good Friday (the three holiest days for Catholics) are all off and clearly labeled. Long breaks are built around them, so that families can travel.

I then looked at Holy Days of Obligation

All Saints Day/Dios los Muertes (Nov 1) is labeled, but was on a Saturday this school year, so it's not taken off. The Holy Day was also abrogated for the same reason.

The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) is an O day, which would allow for people to attend Mass, but is listed as Bodhi Day

The Solemnity of Mary (Jan 1) is off, but is listed as New Year's Day

I then looked at other days of religious significance

Christmas Eve (No religious obligation during school hours, but culturally a day that many Catholics gather and celebrate) is off but unlabeled

Epiphany/Three Kings Day is labeled as an O Day

Ash Wednesday (Jan 18) is an O day

Easter Monday (April 6) (also no religious obligation, but a day when many Catholics like to have off) is not labeled but is a TW work day.

I will also note that none of the O days are days that Catholic schools take off, so while All Saints, Ash Wednesday and Epiphany and Immaculate Conception are important to Catholics, they aren't days that Catholics are expected to miss work or school.

How is this Catholics being discriminated against? Can you please explain to me? Which other religions get more than this?