Including Eid will strengthen schools and community
Holy Week has just begun and Easter is this coming weekend. Passover begins on Friday night. The Holy Month of Ramadan began a little more than a week ago and will end after 30 days of fasting on May 2 with the celebration of Eid al-Fitr. During this holy season, we are hopeful that all our faith traditions will be honored and included by our local schools in the near future.
Unfortunately, right now Muslim students and families in Bridgeport must choose between going to school and practicing their faith every school year. Unlike Christmas, Three Kings Day, and Good Friday or Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Muslim Eid holy day is not yet included by the Bridgeport school system on the official calendar as days off. With 2,000 or more Muslim children in the Bridgeport schools and growing, the time has come for Eid al-Fitr to be added to the district's calendar and given equal treatment as a day off for schools.
Eid al-Fitr is the celebration at the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan. Due to the Islamic calendar being fixed to a lunar calendar, the Eid holy day will not always fall during the school year or during the school week. During some years the Eid will fall during winter break, summer break, spring break, or a weekend, meaning that during some years only one day off will be required. Leaders in the local Muslim community have already provided the district with a projection of the number of days off that will be required each year during the coming 30 years.
An eighth-grade class from Park City Magnet School has done great research and made a compelling presentation to the Board of Education's Diversity Committee in the past month. After further discussion at the committee's last meeting, the committee voted unanimously to move the inclusion of Eid to the full Board of Education.
As we strive to create a community that values the diversity of all our scholars and creates a welcoming environment for all cultures, this will be an important step in the continued march towards full equity in the Bridgeport school system. Our district would not be the first in the state to include Eid al- Fitr as a holiday on the school calendar as Hamden, with a much smaller Muslim population than Bridgeport, has recently included Eid al Fitr on their school district's calendar to begin in the 2023-24 school year.
As leaders in different faith traditions, we believe all of our faith traditions are strengthened when all are recognized, honored and included in these public ways. We call on the full Bridgeport Board of Education to approve this plan to include Eid in the school calendar to strengthen to morale of our Muslim students and families and concretely strengthen our District's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our schools and community as a whole will be stronger as a result.
The Rev. Anthony Bennett, of Mount Aery Baptist Church, Rabbi Evan Schultz, of Congregation B’nai Israel, and Imam Mohamed Abdelati, of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center are leaders in CONECT, or Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut.