Groups in Quincy fighting to establish the Lunar New Year as an official school holiday made a major win last month – but not in the way many expected.

Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch overrode the decision of the school committee to oppose the proposal for a Lunar New Year school holiday, following an earlier city council vote to recognize the day. But that move surprised the school board, which saw the mayor’s decision as undermining the school group’s authority.
Quincy residents in favor of the proposal and the Quincy school board had been at loggerheads on the issue since the school committee’s vote on April 10, which brought in the 2024-25 calendar with no Lunar New Year holiday – despite Quincy’s large Asian population, which is the highest in Massachusetts after Boston.

“Because Quincy hosts many diverse populations, each with their own unique traditions and holidays, it would be unfair to recognize one without affording the same recognition to others,” said school board member Emily Lebo about the committee vote.

But some of those in support of the Lunar New Year ordinance told the Sampan they wonder why such a recognition must be presented as a predicament of choice. Quincy residents of various backgrounds voiced their support for the Lunar New Year holiday during a May 22 City Council hearing. Some noted the importance of Lunar New Year to the city of Quincy and argued that making it an official holiday would be a major step in acknowledging the Asian American history of Quincy.

Nearly 40% of students in Quincy Public Schools are Asian. The Lunar New Year, while it was not a holiday, was a day students were allowed excused absences. These absences lead to classes being nearly empty on the day. Many students had appealed to the city council through petitions.

Some residents are now questioning the intentions of the school board regarding their claims of equal recognition of all cultures. Quincy Schools are closed on Good Friday and on Columbus Day, for example.
“If the city leadership is not seeing, hearing, embracing and respecting us as good neighbors in Quincy, this is an attack to our self-worth and dignity,” Mai Du of Wah Lum Kung Fu & Tai Chi Academy, told the Sampan.

Quincy resident Peter Ng spoke at the Quincy city council meeting on May 22 about the importance of Lunar New Year to Quincy residents. “Recognizing Lunar New Year with a school closure would demonstrate the committee’s commitment to inclusivity and respect for the cultural traditions of a vital segment of our community,” said Ng.

Residents also spoke to highlight the importance of Lunar New Year to the city and the reasons why making it an official holiday is a major step in acknowledging the AAPI history of Quincy. It was during this May meeting that Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch overrode the decision of the school board to declare Lunar New Year a school holiday.

The United Nations in December adopted the Lunar New Year as its eighth official floating holiday. The Lunar New Year became the eighth floating holiday recognized by the UN, alongside Yom Kippur, Vesak Day, Diwali, Gurpurab, Orthodox Christmas, Orthodox Good Friday and Nowruz.

The UN decision capped off a year that saw several U.S. states recognize the Lunar New Year as an official holiday. Colorado, New Jersey, and Washington were the three states to officially recognize Lunar New Year as a holiday. They joined California, which had recognized the holiday in September 2022. State representatives there emphasized the importance of recognizing the work, history, and importance of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. As Colorado’s Nga Vương-Sandoval, chair of the Lunar New Year Allies Advisory Group, explained to the Denverite in June 2023, the recognition of the holiday is “not just for us, but for those before us and those after us.”

Locally, towns such as Brookline and others recognize the holiday. Boston had passed a resolution that designated the Lunar New Year as a city-wide holiday. The statement issued by the Boston City Council recognized the immediate issue of the increased number of hate crimes, but it also foregrounded the historically important role of the AAPI communities of Boston. The statement declared “AAPIs are an integral part of our city and our society; they are our neighbors, frontline healthcare workers, school teachers, small business owners, policymakers, military members, youth sports coaches, and others.”
The statement recognized that “AAPIs have faced strong institutional discrimination and racism throughout history,” with examples from the past such as the Japanese Internment during World War 2, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, and the recent issues like the “significant increase of racist incidents and hate crimes committed against AAPI residents, since COVID-19.”