Subaltern and Hegemonic Holidays

Abstract

The temporal disjuncture of some ethnic weekly cycles in relation to the civil week that we have examined thus far is just one aspect of a larger problem of multicultural asynchronization. The yearly cycle is another aspect of this temporal disjuncture. New York city is traversed by several diasporic new years and other annual holidays that do not coincide with the official American New Year’s Day of the Gregorian calendar, with the official holidays of the state and federal government, or with each other. The Chinese celebrate the advent of their new year in February, the Iranians in March, and the Jews in September, for example.