USA   February 24, 2014: Elected officials are calling on the Department of Education to make the Hindu festival Diwali a school holiday.

Congresswoman Yvette Clarke and five of her colleagues made the request in a letter to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña.

Clarke says she wrote the letter because the Department of Education was considering adding Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and the Lunar New Year to the holiday calendar.

Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, and people of Indian-Caribbean heritage.

The request was first made under the Bloomberg administration, but was shot down by the mayor, who said it was impossible to add a holiday for every religion in a city as diverse as New York.

The city hasn’t added a school holiday since Martin Luther King Day in 1986.

The current Department of Education says that they are reviewing the letter and look forward to discussing it.