Religious Holidays, Traditions, and Cultural Celebrations

The Needham School Committee voted recently to include in the 2021-22 Student Handbooks a calendar of major legal, cultural, and religious holidays observed and celebrated by the Needham community.  This calendar does not replace the regular 2021-22 school calendar; rather, the intent is to acknowledge that our school community is increasingly diverse and students, their families and the staff observe many traditions and holidays representing different faith and cultural communities. 

The calendar, depicted below, will be placed in each student handbook and provide students and staff with a reference for the various observances and holidays.  We expect the calendar will be used by teachers, for example, to assist them in planning lessons and understanding that some of their students may be observing a particular holiday.  Not all holidays require a student to be absent from classes, but in some cases students may ask for additional time to complete an assignment due to family and religious commitments a holiday may require. 

We look forward to adding other holidays and traditions in the years to come, and embedding interactive links to each date so that viewers can learn more about the various observances and traditions.