Lunar New Year is now an official school holiday in New York State.
Signed by Governor Kathy Hochul Legislation To declare the Asian Lunar New Year a public school holiday throughout New York State. The new law ensures that schools are not in session on Lunar New Year.
Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday of the year for millions of East Asian people around the world, including Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Malaysian cultures.
The Lunar New Year is the first year of the lunar calendar year whose months are lunar cycles. The next Asian Lunar New Year will be on February 10, 2024.
“By designating Lunar New Year as an official school holiday, we are taking an important step in recognizing the importance of New York’s AAPI community and the rich diversity that makes New York so great,” Hochul said in a statement. “This is not just a day off from school – it is an opportunity for our children to learn about and celebrate their own or different cultures and traditions.”
Whereas California Lunar New Year is recognized as a state holiday and a New York school holiday, but is not a federal holiday, out of respect for Asian American tradition.
US Representative Grace Meng, this year’s first vice chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus A package of legislation reintroduced To celebrate the holiday at the national level.
Meng’s legislative Lunar New Year package includes the Lunar New Year Day Act, which would establish the Lunar New Year as the 12th federal holiday recognized across the United States.
According to us censusAs of 2021, there are approximately 24 million Asians in the US.
Meng said in a statement that when she was in the New York State Assembly in 2009, she sponsored a bill to establish a New York City school holiday for the Lunar New Year.
Meng said, “There were a lot of people who told me this would never happen. Now look how far we’ve come.” Whoever played the role. And in Congress, I’m continuing the fight by pushing legislation I wrote that would make Lunar New Year a federal holiday.