New York City will give students two Muslim holy days off from school

On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio officially added two holidays to the public school calendar — Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha — making New York the largest city to close schools on Islam's two holiest days. A handful of other cities around the U.S. have put those holiday on their calendar, but as The New York Times points out, "New York City, with its 1.1 million schoolchildren, dwarfs the others in its size and symbolism."

The move wasn't a huge surprise — de Blasio had pledged to add Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha to the school calendar during his campaign. About 10 percent of New York public school students are Muslim, a 2008 Columbia University study estimated. De Blasio had also pledged to add the Lunar New Year to the school holiday list, as requested by the city's Asian community, and he said Wednesday that he'll "keep working on that." Next school year, Eid al-Adha is on Sept. 24, and Eid al-Fitr is during the summer.

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