Eid Al-Adha, a Muslim holiday, has been added as a professional day to the Montgomery County Public Schools 2016-2017 school calendar. This will give Muslim students the day off to celebrate without the consequences of missing school.

Eid Al-Adha, or Festival of the Sacrifice, is a religious, Muslim holiday that honors the trials and triumphs of the Prophet Ibrahim. On this day, a lamb or goat is slaughtered, as a reminder that life is sacred. Two-thirds of the meat is given away to symbolize the willingness to give up some bounties in order to help those in need and strengthen friendships.

“It’s about time,” sophomore Je’nan Hayes said. “Maybe [people will now] be a little more informed about [the holiday].” Many students, like Hayes, hope that the addition of the holiday to the calendar will help educated people who are not aware of its significance. “I feel like other religions know so little about us at times, and we know more about [them],” Hayes added.

The day off will allow Muslim students to spend the day celebrating with family and friends without the constant worry about school. But while all students will have the day off, Muslim teachers will still have to take leave if they want to celebrate the holiday because it will be considered a teacher work day.

“There has been concern over [making it a teacher workday] because our Muslim teachers and staff [are] being dealt with differently,” Board of Education President Michael Durso said. “[But] I think we felt this was probably the best solution we could come up with now… it might change in the years to come.

Even though teachers are not supposed to have quizzes or tests on religious holidays, there are times when teachers give tests because they are unaware of the holiday or because they assume no one will be affected. “[I’ve] missed quizzes, important notes…sometimes I even miss review days…because I missed school,” sophomore Yasin Iqbal said.

In past years, many students have decided to go to school rather than celebrate the religious holiday because they worried about what they would miss if they were not in classes. “Sometimes [I think of going to school instead], but I can’t really do that…we celebrate together as a family,” Iqbal said. “[I] can’t really do anything about it  [except] take off and celebrate with family because that’s the only day we’ve got.”

One of the main arguments the Board of Education heard from the Muslim community, which Durso said was “a driving force behind [the Board’s’] vote,” was that MCPS acknowledges Jewish holidays but does not acknowledge Eid Al-Adha. “Back in the 1970s…the decision was made that we would honor the Jewish holidays because so many students and teachers were out that day,” Durso added.

The decision to add the Muslim holiday to the MCPS calendar “could have been made previously, but it’s an issue that the Board has to vote on…five votes are needed to approve… and for the last two years…the votes weren’t there,” Durso said. “[So] this time the majority of the Board was in favor, [with] the vote 6-2.”

While this is great news for the Muslim communities and families, it still raises a question: What changed in the last year that the Board of Education was able to get the five votes they needed, which they could not receive the previous year?

“A number of us on the Board felt very strongly that we were not being consistent and straightforward with how we embraced diversity,” Durso said. “We talk about…the positives of diversity, but here was a situation where two groups, the Christians and the Jews, had holidays but the Muslims were kind of squeezed out.”

Though the main point of adding Eid-Al-Adha to the MCPS calendar is to give Muslim students the opportunity to celebrate their religious holiday with friends and family, there’s hope that the addition will help make the county more inclusive as it becomes more diverse.

“I hope [the holiday] leads to a better understanding and respect of differences. I think that’s really at the heart of the whole thing,” Durso said. “Hopefully it’s something that brings us more together than divides us.”