On Oct. 31, 2024, Paarth Sarecha, then a Guilderland High School junior, had to prepare for both Diwali and Halloween on the same day. Sarecha had to go to school, come back to help his family clean their home, go to the temple for prayers, and prepare his Halloween costume.
“When it fell on the same day as Halloween, it was very, very, very hectic to go out with my friends for Halloween and help my dad at home and go to the temple for prayers and finish my homework for a quiz I had the next day. So that's what really inspired me to start pushing for Diwali to become a district holiday.”
The experience of that day drove Sarecha to lead a campaign to make Diwali a time when he could focus solely on celebrating, rather than having to juggle several other responsibilities on one of the most important celebrations of the year for his community. He wanted his school district and schools in the Capital Region to add Diwali as a holiday on the calendar and follow New York City’s example. Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation on Nov. 14, 2023, making Diwali a school holiday for New York City public schools. In making his case to the school board, Sarecha used New York City as an example.
“New York City started recognizing it as an actual holiday. So I used that statistic, plus trying to kind of just bringing up the fact that there are so many people who celebrate Diwali here in New York and worldwide. It's such an influential holiday that students having this day off would not only recognize such a huge culture in the world, but also allow those students who do celebrate that culture to be able to celebrate it properly without having to worry about school as well.”
Diwali is a festival celebrating the victory of light over darkness. The festival follows the lunar calendar and is one of the most widely-celebrated holidays by the Hindu community in India. It is also celebrated by the Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist communities throughout South Asia. More than 1 billion people around the world celebrate the five-day festival by exchanging gifts, cleaning their homes, lighting small oil lamps called diyas to decorate their homes and going to the temple for prayers.
According to the Pew Research Center, there are more than 5 million South Asians in the United States. With the growth of the South Asian diaspora in the U.S., Diwali has also gained more prominence both in the Capital Region and in the country. Manoj Ajmera, a co-founder of the Tricity India Association of Albany, has been living in the United States since 1966. He said he is grateful for how the awareness of Diwali has grown in the nearly 60 years he has lived in the region and state, noting the example of a Diwali-themed stamp, which the United States Postal Service introduced in 2016.
“That's very nice of the governor, and wherever it has been recognized because we have been celebrating different ethnic groups their holiday and special religious or the festivities. So finally, they have realized it, and also, a few years back, they had a stamp on festivities, with Diwali. The stamp said Diwali. So that was also a good recognition.”
Sarecha petitioned the school board to add Diwali to the Guilderland District calendar, and gathered more than 200 signatures from his fellow students. Sarecha also reached out to Blanca Gonzalez-Parker, now President of the Guilderland School Board of Education, for advice about the process. Gonzalez-Parker said the vote to include Diwali as a school holiday was unanimous, and that Sarecha was well-prepared to make his case to the board.
“He gave us statistics on how many people celebrate Diwali in the area, or are of Indian descent and he compared numbers to how that number is increasing. And then, you know, he taught the board, quite frankly, and the community, the significance of the holiday and the cultural background and importance of it.”
Despite the pressure of organizing the petition, Sarecha said he was happy to spread more awareness about the holiday and what it means to him and his community.
“Even though, yes, it did feel like a very, I guess, big thing that I was doing, it almost felt like there was a lot of pressure, there was so much support for me that I almost didn't feel it. And it felt more like an obligation, in a sense.”
Ajmera also added that the growing inclusion of ethnic and religious groups is recognition of what they can offer.
“People come to this country for big dreams, and most of them do realize and fulfill the dream, and that's very nice of this country to accept us with all the diversity that we can offer, actually, from many other countries of the world.”
With Diwali officially a school holiday for his district, Sarecha plans to celebrate with his family, by cleaning the house and sharing sweets and gifts. He is hopeful that the inclusion of Diwali in his district will lead to more inclusion across the Capital Region, and eventually New York state.
“I do know that there are a lot of people who don't really exactly know what Diwali is and why it's celebrated, and so I feel like even just that small step of educating people about different cultures and different religions, not even just Diwali, but tons of other cultures and religions as well. I feel like that would be a very positive change to see in our local area, in New York State, in the country, and even the world in and of itself.”
