It is an issue that may become more important, she said, because of a steady rise in the number of Asian-American students. Ms. Jervis said that the explicitly religious aspect of the holiday was probably limited to practicing Buddhists and Taoists, who are not, she said, the majority. It is, she said, more of a family holiday, like Thanksgiving. Michael Sunderland, a science teacher at Seward Park High School near Chinatown who celebrates the holiday with his wife, Annie Han, who is Chinese, and their two children, called it ''deeper than Passover or Christian Easter'' because it is more ancient. In Chinese cities, he said, many people take a two-week holiday, and in the countryside, they take a month.
Schools are also closed.
Ms. Fung said that because the holiday is more cultural than religious, it has not achieved the civic recognition of, say, Ramadan or Easter. The city's Department of Transportation did not return a phone call for comment yesterday.