one thing has always confused me is why the board of education in NYC treats certain religious holidays as more important than others. Just think about the month of September when there are usually four off days for kids.. the first is labor day which is observed throughout the country and the other three are two days for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and one for Yom Kippur (day of atonement), in addition to this there are one or two days off in the spring for Passover although that coincides with the spring/Easter break.
I have nothing against the Jewish faith or the Jewish people but it seems they are disproportionally represented when it comes to these NYC holidays. There are no holidays for Orthodox Christians which usually falls a week after the Western Christian holidays, there are no holidays that close the entire school system in observance for Muslims although their EID is much more important to their religion than Rosh Hashana, I know nothing about Buddhists or Taoist but don't see any holidays for them. Even when you get away from the religious thing and you don't see schools closing for Diwali or Chinese New Year which are both also 'new years' celebration. Days like St Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo are ignored (except in the bars).. . Even when compared to Christian holidays there are only 2 official school closings for that (Christmas and Good Friday) although they tend to be bunched into vacation, Ash Wednesday isn't a holiday for example
The crazy thing is that even in Israel they only celebrate one day for New Year.. New Years is one day everywhere in the world including American New Year which is on January 1st but not on January 2nd also.. but for some reason the entire city shuts down for two days in the middle of September every year
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