Reply to No holiday today for Diwali

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Reply to "No holiday today for Diwali"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi All! Usually it was labeled as "Professional day". How come no holiday this year? Anyone know?[/quote]

Why would it need to be a holiday off of school? [/quote]

Why is Christmas? [/quote]

What percent of the US is Christian?
What percentage of the founding fathers were Christian?

We aren't just going to roll up our own traditions and start holding holidays for every small group of inhabitants. 
[/quote]

Who is the us in "our traditions", and why aren't we (whoever "we" is) going to do that?[/quote]

[b]The existing traditions = we. [/b]But not just existing.  Majority.
Less than 3 percent of mcps is Hindu.

You can understand how taking a day off for every minor groups holidays would eventually become problematic in a diverse area.[/quote]

Traditions change.[/quote]

I’m a middle aged Indian American living in MC with kids in school. (I’m the poster who noted that this was about the end of the marking period).  Closing the school due to high level absence doesn’t make sense to me, because there won’t be a high level of absence.  If my kids were younger and I was shuffling for care, closing would annoy me. Now that my kids are in HS and could use the extra sleep and studying time, I think all extra days off are fine.

But very few Hindus take the day off to pray, even fewer than those who say they celebrate Diwali.

So traditions change but not sure this one makes a ton of sense unless it’s tied to something else on the calendar.[/quote]

Also south Asian here. However, Diwali isn't only about the prayers (most of which do take place in the evening), it's about the festivities, gatherings with friends/family, etc. It's akin to Christmas Eve mass vs. Christmas day. Ideally, we would get the day AFTER Diwali off because of the late nature of many of the festivities, which include lighting candles in the evening, eating elaborate meals with family, and taking prayers in the evening similar to Hannukah. [/quote]

Just to add: not all Indians celebrate Diwali. We don’t.  Although our district gives a half day. Which is nice. Sometimes it’s the thought that counts![/quote]

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