{"id":5991,"date":"2016-06-01T06:14:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T06:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=5988&amp;preview_id=5988"},"modified":"2016-06-01T06:14:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T06:14:09","slug":"new-jerseys-education-board-includes-19-hindu-festivals-in-its-list-of-religious-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=5991","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey\u2019s Education Board includes 19 Hindu festivals in its List of Religious Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In its recently adopted resolution\u2014\u201dThe List of Religious Holidays Permitting Student Absence from School\u201d\u2014New Jersey State Board of Education (NJSBE) listed 19 Hindu festivals.<\/p>\n<p>It included four festivals in October itself, including Navaratri, which alone is listed for ten days.<\/p>\n<p>This \u201clist of religious holidays on which it shall be mandatory to excuse a student\u201d, includes the Hindu festivals of Guru Purnima, Naga Panchami, Raksha Bandhan, Krishna Janmashtami, Ganesha Chaturthi, Onam, Navaratri, Duserra, Diwali,<br \/>\nGoverdhan Puja, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Vasant Panchami, Maha Shivaratri, Holi, Chandramana Yugadi, Souramana Yugadi, Ramnavami and Hanuman Jayanti.<\/p>\n<p>Universal Society of Hinduism urged the Board in the past to include five festivals on the list, which are included in this list.<\/p>\n<p>Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada today, calling the \u201cList\u201d a step in the positive direction, thanked NJSBE and its President Mark W. Biedron for being inclusive.<\/p>\n<p>Rajan Zed had said that Hinduism was rich in festivals and festivals were very dear to Hindu families. Since families wanted to celebrate these festivals together along with their school going children, we did not want our children to be deprived of any privileges at the school because of thus resulting absences on these days.<\/p>\n<p>According to the NJSBE resolution: \u201cAny student absent from school because of a religious holiday may not be deprived of any award or of eligibility or opportunity to compete for any award because of such absence\u201d, \u201cStudents who miss a test or examination because of absence on a religious holiday must be given the right to take an alternate test or examination\u201d, \u201cBoards of education, at their discretion, may add other days to the list for the schools of their districts\u201d, and \u201cAny absence because of a religious holiday must be recorded\u2026as an excused absence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The NJSBE, which meets monthly in Trenton, \u201cadopts the administrative code, which sets the rules needed to implement state education law. Such rules cover the supervision and governance of the state\u2019s 2,500 public schools, which serve 1.38 million students\u201d. Joseph Fisicaro and Diane Shoener are Vice President and Director respectively of NJSBE; David C. Hespe is Commissioner of New Jersey Department of Education; and Chris Christie is the New Jersey Governor.<\/p>\n<p>Source: World Hindu News (WHN)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldhindunews.com\/2016\/06\/01\/53928\/new-jerseys-education-board-includes-19-hindu-festivals-in-its-list-of-religious-holidays\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Jersey\u2019s Education Board includes 19 Hindu festivals in its List of Religious Holidays | World Hindu News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; In its recently adopted resolution\u2014\u201dThe List of Religious Holidays Permitting Student Absence from School\u201d\u2014New Jersey State Board of Education (NJSBE) listed 19 Hindu festivals. It included four festivals in October itself, including Navaratri, which alone is listed for ten days. This \u201clist of religious holidays on which it shall be mandatory to excuse a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}