Sharma now lives in Millburn, N.J., with her husband and two children. Together with scores of other parents, she is asking the Millburn Township School District to consider adding a day off for Diwali to the district’s calendar.
“We parents try very hard, but Diwali seems like no celebration to our kids,” Sharma said. “They go to school, they come home, they have homework, and it does not feel like a festival.”
Sharma moved to New Jersey as an adult to pursue an engineering career. Her 13-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were born in the U.S. Sharma teaches her children to speak Hindi at home and regularly makes a 20-mile trip to a Hindu Sunday school. Still, she worries her kids are growing up with confused identities.
Sharma said her son has come home from school asking questions posed by his classmates — if he’s not Christian or Jewish, then what is he?
“I think if the school granted the (Diwali) holiday, then his friends would know, ‘OK, you are a Hindu,’” she said.
Glen Epley, professor of education at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., said religious questions are nothing new for public schools. And school systems, he said, do not take these issues lightly.
A few landmark court cases have established that public schools cannot observe religious holidays or show preferential treatment to one faith. But that doesn’t make decisions much simpler when it comes to religion in schools, Epley said. “What one person sees as neutral, another might see as hostile.”
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(Photo courtesy of Jyoti Sharma)