California may develop into the newest U.S. state to designate Diwali as an official statewide vacation.
Final week the California Legislature handed Meeting Invoice 268, which might add Diwali, often known as Deepavali and the Hindu “Pageant of Lights,” to the state’s official vacation listing.
The Meeting invoice would authorize group faculties and public faculties to shut on Diwali. State staff can be allowed to elect to take the time without work; sure group school and public faculty staff can be given time without work with pay below the proposed legislation.
California now has 11 state holidays, together with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Cesar Chavez Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day.
To ensure that the invoice to develop into a legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom should signal it earlier than Oct. 12. A consultant for Newsom couldn’t instantly be reached for touch upon the invoice.
“Designating Diwali as an official state vacation not solely acknowledges the pageant’s non secular and historic significance however will higher allow these all through the Indian diaspora and past to participate in one of many world’s oldest non secular holidays,” stated Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San José), who launched the invoice.
Diwali is well known over the course of 5 days and marks the start of the brand new 12 months within the Hindu calendar, in response to the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of Asian Artwork. The vacation is historically celebrated after the 12 months’s final harvest in both October or November by Hindus and Indians throughout the Indian diaspora.
Festivities encompass honoring the goddess of prosperity and abundance, Lakshmi.
Individuals invite the goddess to enter and bless their properties, companies, temples and different public areas by inserting rows of lights inside these areas, in response to the Hindu American Basis.
It’s additionally a time to acknowledge essential relationships, which is why celebrations embody visits with household, pals and others in the neighborhood and exchanging items or sweets.
Diwali will start on Oct. 20 this 12 months.
Shakeel Syed, government director of the South Asian Community of Southern California, stated if handed the invoice is one other step within the route of recognizing the Hindu group specifically and the South Asian group generally for a significant annual non secular occasion.
“It’s a recognition and illustration actually for the second and third generations of this diaspora [so they can] really feel a part of society slightly than a hyphenated model of society, particularly in faculties and faculties,” Syed stated.
California has the nation’s largest South Asian inhabitants, with Los Angeles being dwelling to the fourth largest such inhabitants of any metropolitan space, in response to the South Asian Community.
Pennsylvania was the primary U.S. state to designate Diwali as an official vacation in 2024; nonetheless, faculties authorities workplaces and companies aren’t required to shut in observance, CBS Information reported.
This 12 months, Connecticut turned the second so as to add the occasion to its official vacation listing.
The New Jersey Division of Training permits college students to look at Diwali, that means they are often absent from class to have a good time. In New York Metropolis, public faculties are closed on Diwali, an schooling legislation that was enacted in 2023.
“These initiatives actually negate and mitigate the very pervasive thought of seeing immigrants as everlasting foreigners on this nation solely due to their coloration or language,” Syed stated. “So I applaud the California Legislature in sending a message to the nation that we’re a nation of immigrants, so any which method that we will have a good time that side is nice for everybody.”
