Lunar New Year becomes a recognized holiday in WA

Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation Wednesday officially making Lunar New Year a recognized legislative holiday in Washington. 

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. My-Linh Thai, D-Bellevue, proposed it as part of an effort to promote inclusion of Asian Americans earlier this year. The bill passed the House on Jan. 31 with a vote of 96-1 and on Feb. 28 it unanimously passed the Senate with a 96-0 vote. 

Washington now joins Colorado and California, which mark Lunar New Year as an official, but unpaid, holiday. In recent years, New York state and Philadelphia began recognizing it as a public school holiday, and U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., reintroduced a proposal to make Lunar New Year a federal holiday.

Although Washington’s newest state-recognized holiday is not a paid day off for those who celebrate, Thai said this moment still sends a message of belonging to Asian Americans. 

“I hope that our children get to see themselves,” said Thai, who had a group of students with her in the room during the bill’s signing Wednesday. “I want them to see within society and culture, at least in Washington state, that we see them, that we heard them and that we acknowledge them.” 

“They are American,” she added. “They are part of the fabric of what makes Washington Washington, and they can be proud of who they are.” 

Thai, who immigrated to Washington as a Vietnamese refugee when she was 15, said the new law builds on a dream she had during her teenage years to preserve a culture that has nourished her and “made me who I am.” 

Lunar New Year celebrations include Tết in Vietnam, Seollal in Korea and Spring Festival in China. Because the holiday is based on the lunar calendar, it doesn’t fall on a set day and floats between January and February. Lunar New Year is generally a 15-day celebration. 

Connie So, a professor of American ethnic studies at the University of Washington, praised the law’s passage for recognizing the large communities that celebrate the holiday and acknowledging a cultural tradition without European roots. 

More than 900,000 Washingtonians identify as Asian, about 12% of the state’s population and about 20% of King County’s population, according to 2020 census data. The law comes more than a year after legislation calling for it to become a paid holiday failed to advance in the state Legislature. 

Last year’s bill, House Bill 1516, would have made Lunar New Year a paid state holiday that gave state employees and public schools the day off. The 2023 bill would have cost about $5.7 million every two years, according to a fiscal note. Thai’s new proposal would require an estimated $10,000 the first year to hire a consultant and purchase materials for the commission and $4,000 every two years after that to update programming. 

The Legislature currently recognizes 19 days that are not considered legal holidays, including Korean American Day, Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day and Human Trafficking Awareness Day. There are 11 paid state legal holidays, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day. Juneteenth, which has been federally observed since 2021, was designated as a day of remembrance in Washington in 2007 before it became a paid state holiday in 2022. 

Thai hopes the new law will build momentum at the national level for Lunar New Year to become a federal holiday. Thai added the legislation is a tool to spread awareness of a culturally significant holiday as well as combat anti-Asian racism and xenophobia targeting many Asian Americans.  

“Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians live across our nation, and when one of us suffers and is not being seen, all of us suffer,” Thai said. “I want to see this as a national movement, and we can do this. It’s not just California, it’s not just Colorado, nor is it just Washington. It should be recognized in all 50 states.”