New York City public school students will now get the day off to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights which symbolizes the spiritual triumph of good over evil.

A five-day festival that’s an intrinsic part of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities, city officials say more than 200,000 residents celebrate Diwali, which is observed by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and some Buddhists.

Mayor Adams celebrated the news with a boisterous City Hall news conference, punctuated by live percussionists, flowery rhetoric, and plenty of backslapping.

“This is a city that’s continuously changing, continuously welcoming communities from all over the world,” as Adams told the cheering crowd that Diwali will join other religious celebrations as a day off for students. “Our school calendar must reflect the new reality on the ground.”

Adams linked the passage of the bill to the civil rights victories gained by the black community in the ’60s and noted that Mahatma Gandhi was a hero of Martin Luther King Jr, who was given his own federal holiday despite blowback from much of the country.

“This victory will allow those who did not feel seen, and did not feel heard, we are saying ‘we see you, we hear you, we respect you — and your culture is part of the New York experience,’ added Hizzoner.

The bill was spearheaded by Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Woodside) who is the first Hindu and Indian-American elected to office in Albany and a staunch ally of the mayor.

“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair,” she said, quoting her trailblazing predecessor Shirley Chisholm, who rose from the state legislature to be the first black woman elected to the US House of Representatives.

“As the first elected of our community, I picked up my folding chair and went to Albany to make a place for us at the table of power and to fight for our community to be seen.”

The measure still has to be inked into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The new holiday will replace “Brooklyn-Queens Day” on the school holiday calendar.

New York City students and teachers now have a total of 33 days off including religious and federal holidays as well as winter and spring break. Other religious holidays students get off include Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Christmas, Good Friday, Ed al-Fitr and most of Passover, which usually coincides with Spring or Winter breaks.

Lunar New Year, Memorial Day and Election Day are also observed, but vacation days are not granted if any of the non-federal holidays fall on the weekend, as the first day of Diwali does this year on Nov. 12.

In the 24-25 school year, the day off for Diwali will need to be negotiated by the city and teachers’ union officials. United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew has previously indicated his support for adding the holiday.

Next year’s New York City school calendar includes 182 days of instruction and begins on Sept. 8 and ends on June 27. Snow days will be treated as remote learning days.

Adams counted the move as a major win this past legislative session in Albany and Hochul is expected to sign the bill.

Rep. Grace Meng, a Democrat from Queens, introduced legislation last month to make Diwali a federal holiday.