Hamburg’s Theodor-Haubach-Schule in the Altona-Nord district publishes a school calendar on its website that only lists Islamic holidays in addition to school events. The school, which is committed to ‘diversity’, caused a stir back in 2022 because the school management advised parents to avoid discriminatory and gender-specific fancy dress costumes.
The Hamburg primary school links to an online school calendar on its website entitled ‘THS events’, in which all school events are listed. The calendar also lists all Islamic holidays, such as the end of Ramadan on 30 March and the breaking of the fast on 31 March. The Islamic festival of sacrifice from 4 June to 9 June, which includes a ritual slaughter, is also listed in the calendar.
While the primary school attaches particular importance to recording the main Islamic holidays in the school calendar, there is no mention of Christian holidays in the calendar. The main holidays of Christmas and Easter are not included in the calendar. The dates of Ascension Day in May and Whitsun at the beginning of June are also completely missing from the calendar.
The Theodor-Haubach-Schule caused a stir in the media back in 2022. At the time, the primary school had sent a letter to parents during carnival demanding that the children should not wear discriminatory costumes. Bild reported on this. In 2021, parents are said to have suggested dealing with carnival costumes.
The school also wrote such a letter this year, in which the school asked parents to make sure that the costumes avoid ‘exaggeration of numerous ethnicities’ and ‘gender-specific role attributions’. Instead, the children could ‘creatively’ dress up as a profession or a plant.
Thanks Angela.