Always Brooklyn Day in My Heart

Happy Brooklyn Brooklyn-Queens Anniversary All-City Day!

Article 52, Section 2586 of New York State Consolidated Law:

§ 2586. Anniversary  day  as  a  holiday  in the public schools of the
borough of Brooklyn and in the borough of Queens, city of New York.  The
first  Thursday  in  June  in  each year, except in those years when the
first Thursday in June occurs in the same week with Memorial day, and in
such years the second Thursday in June, known as  anniversary  day,  and
celebrated  in  commemoration  of the organization of Sunday schools, is
hereby made and declared to be a holiday in all the  public  schools  in
the  borough of Brooklyn and in the borough of Queens, city of New York,
and the board of  education  of  such  city  is  hereby  authorized  and
directed  to  cause all the public schools in such boroughs to be closed
on such day.

By Sunday Schools they mean Protestant schools, which is something my sixth grade teacher told us about but I never quite believed her, what with the separation of church and state and so forth. Of course, it amazes me that they had parades and such for the occasion when this is very much a Catholic city (and if you disagree with that, check out the exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, titled Catholics in New York, 1808-1946, which argues that "by organizing to build their own communities, institutions, and political organizations, Catholics reshaped the fabric of life in all five boroughs.").

When I was in elementary/junior high school we just called it Brooklyn Day; I never even heard the "Queens" part until I was in high school in Manhattan. I assume that the primacy of Brooklyn comes from the fact that there was no Borough of Queens at the time the holiday was created in 1829, while Brooklyn existed as long as there has been a Kings Country, which itself was created in 1683. (Queens County was also one of the original counties of New York State, but there was no formal organized City of Queens or similar, not until formal consolidation in 1898.)

It must have sucked to be a kid in Manhattan, the Bronx, or Staten Island and know that us lucky bastards in Brooklyn and Queens got an extra day off from school. Kind of like the hate we public school students have for Catholic/private schools and all their snow days. Of course, once I started going to school in Manhattan, I joined the ranks of the envious. And then there was this one time I was coming home from school and tried to get on the bus and the stupid driver wouldn't let, because "there's no school."

"Yes, there is, it's a Thursday."

"It's Brooklyn-Queens Day, there's no school."

"And I go to school in Manhattan."

"There's no school today! It's Brooklyn-Queens Day."

"Yes, in Brooklyn and Queens. I go to school in Man-hat-tan."

I showed her my program card, but she had never even heard of Stuyvesant, which was weird in itself. Eventually she gave up... begrudgingly.

Now that's all irrelevant, as the "holiday" has been extended to all boroughs. Well, except for the teachers, who now all have to work today. So now they can be the envious ones!