Eid-Al-Fitr is a holiday celebrated by Muslims, marking the end of fasting the holy month of Ramadan. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset while they worship Allah (God) and increase their remembrance of Allah. Common ways Muslims celebrate Eid-Al-Fitr include Zakat-Al-Fitr, morning Eid prayer, wearing new clothes, visiting family, exchanging presents and enjoying feasts. Eid-Al-Fitr is currently not recognized as a school holiday.
LISD should recognize Eid-Al-Fitr as a school holiday. It’s important for the district to acknowledge and respect the religious diversity of their students and staff.
Since Eid-Al-Fitr typically falls on a school day it causes many Muslim students to skip school. Having a day off allows Muslim students to celebrate with their family without falling behind on schoolwork and assignments. Those who don’t skip would have to be in school when they could be out celebrating with the people they love. It would also mean less time to celebrate Eid-Al-Fitr. Each year Muslim students suffer with the struggle between picking their education or religious holiday.
Students have school off for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, News Year’s Eve, Good Friday, etc. It’s not fair that there isn’t a single day off for a Muslim holiday. It doesn’t make sense that the district gives a whole week off for Thanksgiving but can’t give a single day off for Eid-Al-Fitr.
Having a day off for Eid-Al-Fitr would bring more awareness to this holiday. It’s important for high schoolers to learn about different holidays and cultures to build a better understanding of the people around them which could help them build long lasting relationships.
LISD does have the absence excused for Eid-Al Fitr, but it’s still not recognized. The Non-Muslim students on campus wouldn’t know it’s excused and therefore wouldn’t know about Eid-Al-Fitr. Once LISD acknowledges it then the students and staff in all schools within the district would also.
RRISD has already recognized Eid-Al-Fitr as a school holiday for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years. Throughout the school year there are many staff development/no school days. A good solution would be that LISD could rearrange those dates to have one of them to fall on the day of Eid-Al-Fitr.
Eid-Al-Fitr needs to be recognized as a school holiday. Having a day off would allow Muslims students to celebrate without worrying about school, it would also promote awareness and understanding of Eid-Al-Fitr and it would only be fair comparing it to the other holidays the school has off.
*Editor’s note: Fakheri Zayed is a student writer. All views expressed in the commentary are her own and are independent of the district, Rouse High School and the publication.