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- Utah lawmakers advanced a bill to recognize religious "holy days" like Diwali and Good Friday.
- The bill allows a personal preference day for employees to observe these days.
- Advocates emphasize the bill's importance for religious inclusivity and community building.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday that would mark a number of days as official state "holy days," including Hindu holiday Diwali, Lunar New Year and significant days on the Christian calendar like Easter Sunday and Good Friday.
SB259 would enshrine such days not as a legal holidays but as days with deep religious significance to Utah's religious communities that employers and schools should take notice of when creating schedules.
The bill would also provide that Utah employees may receive an additional holiday — a personal preference day — that they may use to observe a state holy day.
"What we're doing here is designating a state 'holy day,' not as a legal holiday or a state holiday ... it seeks to reflect important days of significance for the great diversity of faith that we have in our state. This (list) could certainly be added to as we move along," said Sen. Keven Stratton, R-Orem, who sponsored the bill.
The landscape of Utah religion
Utah has the most religious adherents in the nation, at 76% of the state, according to a Kem C. Gardner study, as measured by the U.S. Religion Census.
"It's time that Utah state laws reflect that," said Annemarie Hilton, a Latter-day Saint college student and former missionary. On Tuesday, she testified to a Utah Senate committee along with her mother, Lani Hilton, a religious blogger and advocate.
While Utah is overwhelmingly composed of Christians, particularly Latter-day Saints, there are also a growing number of Hindus, Muslims and members of other faiths.
"Feeling represented means feeling welcomed, and not just through action or through words, but feeling welcomed on an institutional level," said Tala Alnasser, a Muslim student who attends Brigham Young University. "In the U.S. where the emphasis is placed more or individualism, (religious people of other faiths) often yearn for that sense of connection."
She commended SB259 as a "great start" to better representing Utah's religious landscape.
"Though Eid extends to a few days, I think (this bill) is a great start to institutionalizing community building," Alnasser said. She emphasized that when employees from different faiths take those holidays, they elicit curiosity from those around them.
"(This invites) a more inclusive environment where individuals can be welcomed as their full, unassimilated self," she told the Deseret News.
What holy days mean to Utahns
The holy days bill would add Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Passover and Holi to the list of days Utahns could take off in the spring.
While the text of SB259 does not require schools or workplaces to close on holy days, advocates suggested that the state should at least require that schools and workplaces accommodate observants.
This would mean that students could avoid being marked down for absences, and employees could claim a valid reason for taking a day off.
"It's timely, if not overdue, to institute (this)," said Caru Das Adhikary, the president and founder of the Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. Hindu festivals Diwali and Holi are on SB259's list of holy days.
Adhikary described Diwali as just as significant to Hindus as Thanksgiving and New Year's Day are to Americans. He said Diwali is where men and women dress in their finest clothes to honor the triumph of Hindu god Rama's victory over evil. The celebration includes baking and dancing, among other community events.
"You couldn't do all of that and have a workday at the same time," said Adhikary.
He also described the Hindu Holi festival, which is rapidly approaching, as a holiday celebrating renewal and refreshment. The Krishna temple in Spanish Fork will celebrate its 35th Holi festival on March 29 and 30. Every year the celebration draws thousands of people.
"Observing these two events ... does something to fulfill a deep need within people," said Adhikary.
At the Senate committee hearing, Lani Hilton also cited evidence that religious observance boosts economic well-being and social and political unity.
The creation of holy days could level the ground for non-Christian religious people who, though they do not have to attend school or work on Christian holidays like Christmas, have to find workarounds if they wish to celebrate their own holy days.
"If (students) miss school for a holiday they'll have their perfect attendance record taken ... and that's very frustrating and difficult for them," said Rabbi Samuel Spector, who leads Congregation Kol Ami, a synagogue in Salt Lake City. "(Employees) have limited ... vacation days, and they're told, 'If you want to take Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur off you can, but you have to use a vacation day.' That puts these (people) in a conundrum of, 'Do I limit vacation time with my family or go to my place of worship on the most important religious day of the year?'"
A focus on Good Friday and Easter Sunday
"As a Utah resident for the past 17 years and as a busy mom, I have tried to honor Good Friday," said Lani Hilton. "As a Christian family we want time to attend worship service, time with family, and time to ponder on what we believe to be the greatest act of love shown by our Savior Jesus Christ."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which makes up the majority of Utah's religious population, recently described Easter as "the most glorious event in history" and urged its members to accordingly place their focus on Easter and the accompanying Holy Week, into which Good Friday falls.
"Good Friday commemorates the day the Savior was crucified," reads an official statement from the Church of Jesus Christ website. "That may not sound 'good,' but it comes from the definition of 'good' that means holy. It's a Holy Friday, the day the Savior gave his life for the world."
