Thursday, September 30, 2010 By Zainab Khan
Christmas is a popularly celebrated holiday which originates in Christianity, and is given off by all American schools. But what about other religions and their holidays? - Photograph Courtesy of Creative Commons
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Due to the economic crisis that is plaguing the nation, furlough days have been added to our school calendar. But do these furlough days land on any particular occasion? Or are they randomly thrown into the calendar to stay within California's narrowing budget? It seems that it is a mix of both, but how well is it mixed? Most of all, though, why aren’t holidays that pertain to specific religious groups included in the school calendar, as some religions are?
According to the Tustin Unified School District calendar the school year will have thirty-three days off. Of those days, twenty of them are week-long—the two-week long Winter Break, one-week long Spring Break, and the all-new, one week Thanksgiving Vacation. Five of these thirty-three are new to the calendar: furlough days. The other eight are just “Local Holidays” or other celebrated national holidays like Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
So what is up with the “Local Holidays?” Some of them coincide with Winter Break, Spring Break and Thanksgiving Break: Christmas, New Years, Easter, and then the extended Thanksgiving holiday. Not to mention the furlough that suspiciously coincides with Halloween—well, the day after, anyway. Last year, Yom Kippur was also put on the calender as a “Local Holiday.” Oddly, though, no other religions’ holidays are part of the new days off.
Why is it that all of the major Christian holidays are given off? Well, because the United States’ religious majority is Christian. One might ask then why is Yom Kippur given off? Judaism is another major religion in the U.S., and so the day was acknowledged last year (this year, Yom Kippur was on a Saturday). So why aren't any other religions’ holidays given off, say, like Eid, the recent Muslim holiday? They do say that the church is separate from the state, and that citizens have freedom of religion, don’t they?
Religious holidays, aka days that people take off to honor the occasion—days that have to be made up at work or at school, made up after the holiday. In high school, work is already piled on students, so they do not even think about taking a day off, as the make up would take too much out of them.
Take September 10 as an example. Two weeks ago, Eid, a Muslim holiday, fell on Friday, September 10, and many students took the day off. Many others decided not to take the day off based on their usual workload and the workload that would have to be completed if a day was missed. By chance, some students missed tests and labs; one student missed two tests and a lab. Some of the missed subjects were easily made up, while others took longer to make up, despite Tutorial. However, this would not have been so difficult had Eid been given off.
However, some may say that there is no reason for such holidays to be introduced to our holiday system, and that the major religions are represented in our holidays. But, saying this seems to deny the spirit of our country, where every voice is to be heard, a country with freedom of religion. How is every voice heard if not every voice is represented; after all, what representation do we show of people when it shows only the two majorities—especially the bigger one? Sure, democracy is based on majority, but in democracy everyone has a say. So why not have some enlightenment in our freedom of religion, shown through the freedom to celebrate during our allotted celebration from our religion with no consequence put on us by school or work?
Furlough days are allotted off because they save the district tons of money. The question is why cannot they be placed in holidays that pertain to a larger variety of religious groups, instead of just to certain more common ones? Or, if that is too hard, add them in and extend the school year a week or two later. Sure, the district is worried about money problems these days; but other religions’ holidays should have been added to the calendar years ago! Some people appreciate taking the day off for Christmas even if it has no meaning to them, so why doesn’t the district let others appreciate other holidays the same way?