Anonymous wrote:Diwali is TODAY yet FCPS gave the kids off tomorrow. Did they really screw up or do they just not care and are using Diwali as an excuse for an end of quarter day off? Tomorrow is not Diwali, TODAY is Diwali.

FWIW, the government holiday for Diwali in India is on Friday, per my colleagues there.

Anonymous wrote:No one cares about these dumb religious holidays. Its end of quarter teacher workdays but they gave a nod to some holidays to be "inclusive"

1 percent of the county celebrates Diwali.
We can’t do this for every holiday.

Anonymous wrote:I'm Hindu and I don't think school should be closed on Halloween. It's a culturally significant day in America and there are not many where we can celebrate our common cultural traditions.

The day after makes perfect sense on many levels and is still a great way to recognize Diwali this year.

I just wanted to add - the blowback would be huge. You really don't want that OP, it's not worth it.

I'm Hindu and I don't think school should be closed on Halloween. It's a culturally significant day in America and there are not many where we can celebrate our common cultural traditions.

The day after makes perfect sense on many levels and is still a great way to recognize Diwali this year.

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 have school on Christmas Day. Bring it on. Oh wait, we should have that one off? Majority rules, I guess. Hope you aren't ever in the minority. (And I celebrate Christmas.)

This argument is a logic fail.

Let me guess, you celebrate Christmas. Lots of holidays get combined/not observed.

Christmas is a national holiday.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're all completely missing the point because you're so scared of other races and religions. The point was why did FCPS say that tomorrow is Diwali when today is Diwali?

Because it’s when they’re observing Diwali. If the (at most, likely) 15% of students who ACTUALLY observe Diwali needed to miss today, they would be excused. For everyone else they observe Diwali tomorrow

And teachers? Do you think there’s enough subs?

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 have school on Christmas Day. Bring it on. Oh wait, we should have that one off? Majority rules, I guess. Hope you aren't ever in the minority. (And I celebrate Christmas.)

This argument is a logic fail.

Let me guess, you celebrate Christmas. Lots of holidays get combined/not observed.

+1. There's also the teacher unions who argue for holidays on Mondays and Fridays to give its members three day weekends.

OP, you are looking at the problem from the wrong direction. FCPS is obligated by law to provide 180 school days a year or 990 hours of instruction. Every time a holiday is added, FCPS has to rework its schedule to fit the needs of the students, administrators and faculty while staying within its budget AND meet the legal minimum of 180 days or 990 hours. It's not easy. So, sometimes holiday have to be merged, as in Presidents' Day, which was once separate holidays in Feb for Washington or Lincoln, or scheduled in such a way to meet all of the other demands on it

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Diwali is a day they give off for anyway. It’s just an observation day meaning that there will be no tests or assignments due.

This.

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 have school on Christmas Day. Bring it on. Oh wait, we should have that one off? Majority rules, I guess. Hope you aren't ever in the minority. (And I celebrate Christmas.)

This argument is a logic fail.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're all completely missing the point because you're so scared of other races and religions. The point was why did FCPS say that tomorrow is Diwali when today is Diwali?

I don’t know OP. It’s possible the timing of Diwali changed at some point, because I originally had Nov 1st marked as Diwali on my calendar, and only realized a few weeks ago that it’s actually Oct 31st. I think lunar calendar based holidays sometimes change.

That happened with Eid a few years back and it was a disaster calendar wise.

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.

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!!!

Christmas would be off no matter what.

It is a national holiday in the US.

It is actually the biggest national holiday in the US in terms of cultural significance and contribution to the US economy.

Even if it wasn't, there would not be enough students or teachers at school Christmas Eve or Christmas day (and likely through New Years) for FCPS to hold school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Diwali start at sundown today?

No. It was all day. Diwali is supposed to be an FCPS holiday by their policy (I don’t like the religious holidays) but they put it on the wrong day. Definitely a screw up. But they haven’t said a word to explain.

Not the first time they got the date wrong.

At least it wasn't as big of and issue as the wrong Eid date/AP exam csncellation mess.