While Christmas and Easter are shunned for ‘winter holiday’ and ‘spring holiday’, California State Assemblymember for District 17, Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), authored a bill to establish two Muslim holidays as official state holidays that would allow local public school boards and community colleges the ability to close campuses.
AB 2017, which passed the State Assembly with a 64-1 vote to advance to the Senate Appropriations Committee, would establish Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as official state holidays.
Eid al-Fitr (Festival of Breaking the Fast) is celebrated on the first day of Shawwal, the month immediately following Ramadan, and marks the end of Ramadan.
Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) us elebrated on the 10th day of Dhul-Hijjah, the 12th (final) month of the Islamic lunar calendar. It coincides with the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
In a video shared by the Supervisor of San Francisco District 5, Bilal Mahmood, in March, when the bill was announced, Haney said, “Ramadan Mubarak, everyone. I’m Assemblymember Matt Haney. We’re here at the Islamic Society of San Francisco with an incredible group of community members announcing an exciting bill that we’ve put forward in the state legislature, AB 2017, which will make Eid a state holiday in California.”
“Right now, too many students are being forced to celebrate what is one of the most holy days for them or miss time in school. Workers are being forced to miss critical time at the jobs to be able to celebrate something that is one of the most holy days, not just for Muslim Californians, but nearly 2 billion Muslims across the world.”
“This is how we show truly that we are inclusive, that we value diversity, we celebrate diversity, and that our Muslim neighbors, our friends, our colleagues are fully included and able to celebrate without consequence the most holy a holy day for them.”
“I’m here with somebody who is leading that effort here in San Francisco and is my supervisor and is also the first Muslim American supervisor in San Francisco and is an incredible leader here for the Tenderloin and for District 5. And thank you for being here and for your partnership.”
Mahmood added, “Thank you so much, Mayor Haney. As the first Muslim American representing the Tenderloin and District 5, this means a lot to this neighborhood. This is a neighborhood of 3,500 children, hundreds of whom Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Pakistani, from all over the world.”
“As Assemblyman Rahimi said, they are janitors, small business owners, people in tech, Muslims from all over the world. And now with this bill, AB 2017, we will have Eid as a state holiday so they can see their values and their beliefs and their culture represented in ink.”