Home for the Holidays?
By Amarzaya Chanarerdene, Sisseline Lovejoy, Finn Honstein, Zoe Maderas & Serena Strohmeier-Gach
Winter break is often a time of excitement, when students get to spend time with family and friends, travel, or simply relax at home. However, the student body at Albany High celebrates a diverse range of holidays, and not all of tem fall during the break.
This year Hanukkah, which lasts over a week, overlapped with midterms. Sophomore Shayna Phillips expressed frustration and concern about balancing studying and celebrating.
“Finals week fully overlaps with Hanukkah this year which really sucks,” Philips said. “It’s a time I try to enjoy with family and friends as much as possible. But instead every night I’ll have finals looming over me.”
Freshman Yoyo Bar-Tura had a more positive view on the situation. He recognized that school ended earlier during midterms and hoped the early release would give him even more time to celebrate.
“Hanukkah overlaps with finals week, and I think that’s perfectly fine,” Bar-Tura said. “If anything, the extended time after school gives students plenty of time to study for tests and celebrate with family.”
Senior Alex Class pointed out that incorporating Hanukkah into the school calendar would be difficult. “I’ve gotten used to celebrating just at nighttime,” Class said. “It doesn’t sync up with the normal calendar anyway, so it’d be tough to schedule.”
As Hanukkah celebrations don’t directly interfere with school, students and faculty who celebrate this holiday can participate in their traditions in some way, even if it isn’t always ideal. However, in Jewish tradition, celebrating Hanukkah is not as important as the Jewish High Holidays, which occur in late September or early October, are more religiously significant, and last the whole day.
IHS teacher Emily Surowitz, who celebrates Hanukkah, thought that it’s fine for students to miss school for holidays like these and that the Albany High School absence policy acknowledges this.
“It does not bother me as the school allows religious observation as an excused absence,” she said.
Although the absence is excused, senior Riley Newfield mentioned that there’s often work or tests that need to be made up. He acknowledged that teachers could be more considerate when assigning work during the High Holidays, while still recognizing that it might not make sense to have the High Holidays as an official school holiday.
“I do think that the administration and teachers could do a better job of not having tests or assigning important classwork on those holidays out of respect for people who do celebrate them,” Newfield said.
Math teacher AnnieJae Fischburg, also recognized that skipping class or struggling to find time for homework due to holidays can be really challenging for students. She found that they often take it upon themselves to deal with everything on their own, possibly even skipping out on some of their cultural practices, giving others the impression that it isn’t a problem.
“I think that it’s hard for students to say ‘I’m not going to be at school today’ or ‘I can’t do my homework this week because it’s after sunset.’ I think our school sometimes creates a dynamic where that can feel extra challenging, so students are just figuring it out,” Fischburg said.
Freshman Hazel Aksu shared Fischburg’s opinion. Aksu celebrates Ramadan and fasts for a month, only eating after sunset and before sunrise, which she noted can be difficult to balance with school.
“When I fast it overlaps with school and it’s hard to stay focused in class when you’re hungry,” Aksu said, “but after a week it’s easier.”
Some school districts in the Bay Area have made efforts to recognize more holidays. For example, starting in the 2023–2024 school year, the SFUSD has passed a resolution to include Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, two Muslim holidays, in their school calendar.
Another holiday AHS students celebrate that overlaps with the school year is Lunar New Year, which lasts for 15 days. In a survey of 86 students and faculty, 23 responded that they celebrate Lunar New Year. Some, such as senior Elaine Zhang, felt that there should be time off for the holiday.
“Considering the amount of Asian students in California,” Zhang said, “I feel like there should be at least one day off for Lunar New Year.”
Freshman Max Lim shared this feeling but also pointed out the length of the holiday. “It would be nice to get a day off for Lunar New Year, but it’s technically two weeks long.”
On the other hand, senior Tenzin Norbu enjoys it when Lunar New Year overlaps with school.
“I actually prefer it during the school week because it feels more exciting,” Norbu said.
Although students and teachers had a variety of opinions on this topic, many still wished they had more time to celebrate their unique holidays, while also recognizing that it would be difficult to do.
English teacher Jessica Rhode is on the Calendar Committee, the group that makes the schedule for the school year, and said that calendars are made two years in advance. Members of the committee vote between different possible calendars that are put together by Chief Human Resources Officer Marina Gonzalez. Most of the time these calendars don’t change much from year to year. When asked how effective they thought the district was at recognizing the various holidays people celebrate, students and faculty had a variety of opinions, with most being somewhat neutral.
“Albany High does have more awareness and flexibility for diverse cultural holidays celebrated by its student body than other districts I’ve been in before,” said biology teacher Emma Zhao, “but there is plenty of room to grow!”
