As the Asian population grows in the United States, political power is also growing.

For instance, in the city of Quincy, Massachusetts, where nearly 40% of the public school students are Asian, the school committee recently voted to make Lunar New Year a holiday, after several years of debate.

In Quincy, a city south of Boston with a population just over 100,000, students used to have to choose between education and following their cultural rituals on Lunar New Year, one of the biggest festivals celebrated by many Asian countries like China, Korea, Vietnam.

In the past, the number of Asian students who missed school that day had soared. More than half of the students attending North Quincy High School, where 57% of students are Asian, requested a day off on Lunar New Year 2025, making class activities ineffective.

Recognizing the holiday marks an essential step of representing the rapidly growing Asian population in Quincy, said school committee member Tom Leung. 

“I feel so happy that my kids get to experience this aspect of their culture and share it with their friends and classmates,” Leung said. “And I’m also happy that my kids get to witness firsthand and from the front row the process that it took to get it passed.”