Why did FCPS screw up on Diwali?

[Anonymous]

They should have acknowledged it and posted their Diwali post yesterday. It’s weird to pretend they had the right day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should not be off on religious holidays in the first place. If your family celebrates a religious holiday your kid should be allowed to stay home that day with an excused absence. They should not close the whole school system down so you can celebrate.

What happened to the separation of church and state in America?! If I wanted that, I would have stayed in my own country, not immigrated here.

Why do all the schools close on basically every religious holiday?!

I think the exact same thing! Have school on Christmas. I don’t care. I don’t need two weeks of school Closed in Dec either.

I love Christmas and celebrate with my
Family. Most of the country does for religion or tradition, but I don’t care if you have school on that day.

Separation of church and state. These are public schools - not religious schools. Stop closing them. Diwali is celebrated by 1 percent of the people in this country yet we are closing schools for them all. ALL Kids need to be educated.

Christmas is a major secular national holiday in the USA, and the only religious holiday reconized federally in the country.

Christmas has been a national holiday fo over 150 years. It is one of the first 4 original national holidays and is a very important part of our national heritage.

Yes, I agree. But if I have to sacrifice that in order to have a consistent school calendar than I will. I don’t want anyone thinking I am not equitable. It is a secular holiday. I don’t believe in god but celebrate Christmas because it is a wonderful tradition. It seems like to get Christmas off we have to have 10 other holidays so I am saying I’d make that trade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should not be off on religious holidays in the first place. If your family celebrates a religious holiday your kid should be allowed to stay home that day with an excused absence. They should not close the whole school system down so you can celebrate.

What happened to the separation of church and state in America?! If I wanted that, I would have stayed in my own country, not immigrated here.

Why do all the schools close on basically every religious holiday?!

I think the exact same thing! Have school on Christmas. I don’t care. I don’t need two weeks of school Closed in Dec either.

I love Christmas and celebrate with my
Family. Most of the country does for religion or tradition, but I don’t care if you have school on that day.

Separation of church and state. These are public schools - not religious schools. Stop closing them. Diwali is celebrated by 1 percent of the people in this country yet we are closing schools for them all. ALL Kids need to be educated.

Christmas is a major secular national holiday in the USA, and the only religious holiday reconized federally in the country.

Christmas has been a national holiday fo over 150 years. It is one of the first 4 original national holidays and is a very important part of our national heritage.

Yes, I agree. But if I have to sacrifice that in order to have a consistent school calendar than I will. I don’t want anyone thinking I am not equitable. It is a secular holiday. I don’t believe in god but celebrate Christmas because it is a wonderful tradition. It seems like to get Christmas off we have to have 10 other holidays so I am saying I’d make that trade.

And you are a very, very tiny minority perspective.

No school district in the USA, except possibly Dearborn, would have even 1/10 of their teachers and students in school if they held classes on Christmas or Christmas Eve.

With an August start date, Fcps Should easily be able to do what every other school district in the country manages, ending 1st semester around December 21, and ending the school year no later than Memorial Day.

[Anonymous]

Wait... isn't Diwali 5 days from 30 Oct to 3 Nov? And isn't the 3rd day (1 Nov) the most significant day when most celebrations take place? If so, then FCPS got it right. If not, then FCPS got it right for a nice 4-day weekend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should not be off on religious holidays in the first place. If your family celebrates a religious holiday your kid should be allowed to stay home that day with an excused absence. They should not close the whole school system down so you can celebrate.

What happened to the separation of church and state in America?! If I wanted that, I would have stayed in my own country, not immigrated here.

Why do all the schools close on basically every religious holiday?!

Yes let's please stop pinning spring break to easter and winter break to Christmas and instead tie them to quarter end. Thank you!!!

Spring break is pinned to the spring breaks for surrounding school districts.

FCPS tried separating it from Easter recently, and it was a disaster. Many teachers have kids in other districts and changing spring break created staffing and childcare issues galore.

I don't know why we can't do things the way that universities and schools in most of the country do and tie fall and spring break to the end off the quarter. Not to mention winter break. So stupid. I am Hindu, I didn't even want Diwali off. I want my kids to have federal holidays off, and quarter breaks, the summer, and then I'm good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should have acknowledged it and posted their Diwali post yesterday. It’s weird to pretend they had the right day.

100%

[Anonymous]

It's weird that they doubled down and posted the Happy Diwali today. I was embarassed for them. We celebrated yesterday as did all of our Hindu neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people who celebrate Diwali take the day off?

Yes, they do. My DD told me that her friends always celebrate.

WTF? No. My culture values education. We'd much rather send our children to school and celebrate in the morning and in the evening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should not be off on religious holidays in the first place. If your family celebrates a religious holiday your kid should be allowed to stay home that day with an excused absence. They should not close the whole school system down so you can celebrate.

What happened to the separation of church and state in America?! If I wanted that, I would have stayed in my own country, not immigrated here.

Why do all the schools close on basically every religious holiday?!

Yes let's please stop pinning spring break to easter and winter break to Christmas and instead tie them to quarter end. Thank you!!!

Spring break is pinned to the spring breaks for surrounding school districts.

FCPS tried separating it from Easter recently, and it was a disaster. Many teachers have kids in other districts and changing spring break created staffing and childcare issues galore.

I don't know why we can't do things the way that universities and schools in most of the country do and tie fall and spring break to the end off the quarter. Not to mention winter break. So stupid. I am Hindu, I didn't even want Diwali off. I want my kids to have federal holidays off, and quarter breaks, the summer, and then I'm good.

Well this year we do have fall “break” at the end of the quarter. It fell nicely and we have a 5 day weekend.

Spring break - FCPS tried to move this to a better timing spot two years ago. The teachers who live outside Fairfax county flipped out and raised holy hell at the idea of not having spring break at the same time that their own kids would since other districts stayed married to the Easter week paring.

Many many families (including Christian ones) in FCPS would love them to put spring break at the end of the quarter and divorce it from Easter because travel costs would be lower. But unless FCPS can get Loudoun and Arlington to match us in moving it that way it’s stuck attached to Easter for now given staffing issues.

[Anonymous]

^
I’ll add too that frankly having spring break separate from Easter would help my family celebrate Easter better. We like to get together with family for it but are then forced to decide if we are doing that vs taking an actual trip somewhere since our family isn’t local. If the break was at a different time we could easily do both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^
I’ll add too that frankly having spring break separate from Easter would help my family celebrate Easter better. We like to get together with family for it but are then forced to decide if we are doing that vs taking an actual trip somewhere since our family isn’t local. If the break was at a different time we could easily do both.

Agreed. We cut our Spring Break down last year so that we could be home to attend Good Friday and Easter at our home church and with our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should not be off on religious holidays in the first place. If your family celebrates a religious holiday your kid should be allowed to stay home that day with an excused absence. They should not close the whole school system down so you can celebrate.

What happened to the separation of church and state in America?! If I wanted that, I would have stayed in my own country, not immigrated here.

Why do all the schools close on basically every religious holiday?!

Yes let's please stop pinning spring break to easter and winter break to Christmas and instead tie them to quarter end. Thank you!!!

Spring break is pinned to the spring breaks for surrounding school districts.

FCPS tried separating it from Easter recently, and it was a disaster. Many teachers have kids in other districts and changing spring break created staffing and childcare issues galore.

I don't know why we can't do things the way that universities and schools in most of the country do and tie fall and spring break to the end off the quarter. Not to mention winter break. So stupid. I am Hindu, I didn't even want Diwali off. I want my kids to have federal holidays off, and quarter breaks, the summer, and then I'm good.

Well this year we do have fall “break” at the end of the quarter. It fell nicely and we have a 5 day weekend.

Spring break - FCPS tried to move this to a better timing spot two years ago. The teachers who live outside Fairfax county flipped out and raised holy hell at the idea of not having spring break at the same time that their own kids would since other districts stayed married to the Easter week paring.

Many many families (including Christian ones) in FCPS would love them to put spring break at the end of the quarter and divorce it from Easter because travel costs would be lower. But unless FCPS can get Loudoun and Arlington to match us in moving it that way it’s stuck attached to Easter for now given staffing issues.

I don't know why Loudon and Arlington counties won't just agree to move spring break. I would love to be able to travel, it's too expensive with the week they're using now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait... isn't Diwali 5 days from 30 Oct to 3 Nov? And isn't the 3rd day (1 Nov) the most significant day when most celebrations take place? If so, then FCPS got it right. If not, then FCPS got it right for a nice 4-day weekend.

No. Diwali isn’t five days long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait... isn't Diwali 5 days from 30 Oct to 3 Nov? And isn't the 3rd day (1 Nov) the most significant day when most celebrations take place? If so, then FCPS got it right. If not, then FCPS got it right for a nice 4-day weekend.

No. Diwali isn’t five days long.

Well, I am not Hindu, but Google says otherwise. Many sites say that it is a "5 day Hindu festival of lights."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait... isn't Diwali 5 days from 30 Oct to 3 Nov? And isn't the 3rd day (1 Nov) the most significant day when most celebrations take place? If so, then FCPS got it right. If not, then FCPS got it right for a nice 4-day weekend.

No. Diwali isn’t five days long.

Well, I am not Hindu, but Google says otherwise. Many sites say that it is a "5 day Hindu festival of lights."

Please stop acting like you know a religion because you found something on Google.