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Opinion
When Every Day Is a Religious Holiday
In the name of ‘inclusivity,’ the school year is becoming off-limits to teaching. How about zero holidays?
By
Stephen Prothero
March 9, 2015 7:18 p.m. ET
64 COMMENTS

A few years ago, I received in the mail an interfaith calendar along with a letter from Boston-area chaplains urging professors to be sensitive to students who might miss class to observe a holy day. I like to think I am as sensitive as the next guy, but this calendar was so chock full of holidays—including three different Christmases—that it was nearly impossible to find an “unholy” day.

There were birthdays to celebrate—for atheist Bertrand Russell, for scientologist L. Ron Hubbard and for the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie revered by Rastafarians. There were also death days and new years days and days of feasting and fasting. Was I really supposed to excuse Mormon students on Pioneer Day? And Baha’i students on the day of the ascension of their founder, Baha’u’llah?

This hyper-inclusive calendar came to mind when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that the nation’s largest public-school system had decided to add two Islamic feast days, Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr, to its days off. Why stop there? Why not the winter solstice for Wiccans? Or Festivus for worshipers of Saint Seinfeld?
ENLARGE
Photo: Getty Images

Mr. de Blasio, who called the new policy “a change that respects the diversity of our city,” was immediately pressured to show equal respect for practitioners of non-Western religions. Asian-Americans want the Lunar New Year to be recognized as a school holiday and Indian-Americans want to close public schools on Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

Some oppose this new school calendar because of their conviction that the U.S. is or ought to be a Christian nation, or because they fear that Islamic Shariah law is coming to “New Yorkistan.” Pamela Geller of Stop Islamization of America blogged on March 4 that “the only Muslim holiday that should have been added was September 11th.” Others have more practical objections. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg opposed the multiplication of religious holidays in public schools on grounds that children need more time in class, not less.

But what about the First Amendment, which forbids local, state and federal governments from endorsing one religion over another? Mr. de Blasio said the new Islamic-holiday policy would recognize New York’s growing Muslim community and honor its contributions to city life. But why should any American city honor one religion over another? Why Yom Kippur but not Diwali?

New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in a statement that Muslim students “should not have to choose between an instructional day and their religious obligations.” Amen to that. But should Hindus and Sikhs have to choose? Or Jews? Or Christians? If prior policies can be faulted for fostering an informal establishment of Christianity or Judeo-Christianity, doesn’t this new policy put an unconstitutional seal of approval on the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition?

When Barack Obama delivered his first inaugural address in 2009, he described the U.S. as “a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.” Hindus, Muslims and atheists were thrilled to be recognized as players in what philosopher Horace Kallen once described as our “symphony of civilizations.” But Steve Waldman of Beliefnet rightly asked, “What’s Obama Got Against Buddhism?”

No president can possibly give a shout out to every religious group in the U.S., and even if he tried, someone would inevitably protest that he had slighted Jediism or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Similarly, Mr. de Blasio can neither “honor” nor “recognize” every religious holiday celebrated by New Yorkers.

The desire to move away from recognizing only Christian and Jewish holidays is understandable. This is a way to acknowledge the religious diversity of America’s population and to honor the religious tolerance of the Founders. But these holidays cannot be endlessly multiplied without subtracting from the core mission of public schools.

In 2010 in Massachusetts, school committees in two towns went in opposite directions on the question of Islamic holidays. Cambridge opted for inclusivity by adding Eid al-Adha to the Christian and Jewish holidays it already recognized. Harvard tried to be fair to all believers by voting to dispense with religious holidays altogether.

Both of these approaches are honest efforts to preserve the religious liberty of students and school employees and to keep church and state from becoming too entangled. But one solution is practical and the other is not. When it comes to state-sanctioned holy days in a religiously diverse society, “all of the above” is not possible. “None of the above” is the right way forward.

Mr. Prothero is a professor of religion at Boston University and the author of “God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World—and Why Their Differences Matter” (HarperOne, 2010).
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Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012

Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.

New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.

“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”

Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.

“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”

OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.

One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.

Easy money.