Gavin Newsom Adds Woke and Islamic Holidays to the California Calendar

 The bill updated the list of California holidays to include Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, allowing for school closures and work exemptions for state employees. While the legislation recognizes the new holidays on the California calendar, state employee observers are required to use holiday credits to use them, and courts and other offices will remain open. Students are to be issued excused absences when requested.


Additional legislation of a similar vein signed by Newsom added “Native American Day” to the docket of paid holidays. The additional costs of payroll expenses and lost productivity are expected to cost California taxpayers up to $20 million annually. Newsom hopes that the added holiday will “challenge misconceptions about California Indians and address what it describes as an incomplete understanding of Native American societies in the teaching of California history,” according to the California Post.

The new addition raises the number of California state holidays to 12, nearly 5 percent of the weekdays in a given year.