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Meng Hails Mayor's Decision to Create School Holiday for Lunar New Year

June 23, 2015

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) tonight hailed Mayor de Blasio's decision to create a school holiday for Lunar New Year. Meng was among the first to introduce legislation that sought to close New York City schools for the holiday when she served in the New York State Assembly, and she has urged the Mayor – in person and publicly – to move forward with it. The Congresswoman will join the Mayor to make the official announcement on Tuesday, and she issued the following statement this evening:

"It's been a long road. But we finally made it. At long last, a school holiday for Lunar New Year will be a reality in New York City and I cannot be more excited."

When I was growing-up in Queens, I often felt that my ethnicity was ignored or forgotten about when it came to school holidays. I always wondered why school was closed for my Jewish friends on their New Year – on Rosh Hashanah – but not for my New Year; and many kids and parents of Asian descent have continued to wonder why to this very day.

When I first sponsored the bill, there wasn't much support for it, outside the Asian American community. People even laughed at it and said over and over again that it would never happen. I urged the previous Mayor to close City schools for the holiday but he said no. But I knew deep down that momentum would eventually build for it, and that one day, with hard work, its time would finally come. And now, here we are. I could not be prouder to have led the charge on it, and I thank Mayor de Blasio for moving forward with it."