Why I Would Rather Go to Classes on Columbus Day Break

Thursday, September 24th, I skipped my physics and neurobiology lectures, my Arabic section, and my physics lab. No, I was not pressing that snooze button over and over again, catching up on work I’ve been putting off for so long, or shopping at Primark on a weekday when it would be less crowded.  It was Eid Al-Adha, the biggest holiday of the year for Muslims. And I, as a Muslim college student, woke up at 5:30 a.m. to dress up and make it to morning prayer in Roxbury. Then I spent the rest of that day and the next two participating in Eid festivities.

I skipped classes to celebrate, “an act which, in nearly any other context, would be irresponsible. But that day, I had a valid excuse and responsibility was not the issue—my teachers were more than understanding when it came to my attendance (or lack thereof). Rather, the issue became clear in the days that followed. The world does not stop when I do, and my celebrating came at the expense of falling behind with all my coursework.  Religion is rooted in my identity, but so is the value of education, and I, like millions of other college students, hate having to choose between the two.  

This hit me harder than most of my other Muslim peers because I went to Dearborn Public Schools in Dearborn, MI growing up. There, the school board pencils in up to three days of break into the school calendar every year to accommodate their large Muslim population. As much as I would love to think that public school systems like that of Dearborn, and now New York, fully do this in the interest of Muslim students, I know I would not be correct. Recognizing a religious holiday on the governmental level is always a matter of practicality, not endorsement of particular religions. This is evident in that we get days off of school for Christmas but this vacation is called “Winter Break” instead of “Christmas Break.”

Nevertheless, despite the difference in labels, the outcome is the same: my Christian friends still get time off of classes—mostly because there is a lot more of them. Outside of a few places (like Detroit, D.C., and Philadelphia), Muslims make up less than 1% of the population and their absence in a cubicle or lecture hall does not have practical impact on much of anything in the country.

Of course, Muslims are not alone in this struggle. Anyone who is not Christian can relate. My Jewish friends did not get their classes cancelled recently for Yom Kippur either. They do not get any of their religious days off unless they fall conveniently on a day that is federally recognized. The same goes for people of other faiths with holidays like Diwali, Chinese New Year, and Birth of Bahá’u’lláh.

But what day do we get off? Columbus Day. Next Monday, October 12th, no Harvard classes will be in session to celebrate a man who, 2015 minus 1492 years ago, first landed on the shores of the New World and committed what are arguably crimes against humanity. Additionally, not many people recognize that there would not have been any sailing the ocean blue without the persecution of wealth and properties of the Jews and Muslims of Spain that paid for his voyages. Moreover, if we are still considering practicality, I doubt any college students would miss class purposefully if they were still in session to reflect on the journeys of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.