Good news for California! New holiday declared by Gavin Newsom for June 2025
Governor Gavin Newsom announced that beginning June 15, 2025, Juneteenth will join California’s calendar of public holidays.
Starting from 2025, the state of California will add a new holiday to the calendar for all residents. According to the governor of the Golden State, Gavin Newsom, the new holiday is meant to commemorate a significant event in the history of Californian society.
This new state holiday will be added to the existing public holidays in California, providing employees and students with an additional vacation day. It's a way of bringing more light to a fantastic cause and making people think in the community.
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What is the new holiday declared by Gavin Newsom in California for 2025?
Beginning June 15, 2025, California will observe a new holiday, the National Juneteenth Freedom Day. It is the anniversary of when slavery in America ended, on June 19, 1865.
According to California's official site, in a long statement, Governor Newsom explained why the holiday was included on the state calendar.
"The thousands of (slave) people who came to California, and especially Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, taught our state that America's fight for freedom did not reach its conclusion in 1776 or 1865 but rages on today," he stated.
Newsom also stated that California is celebrating the holiday "in recognition of the centuries of adversity and achievements that have brought us to this moment," and urged Californians to "consider the cause of freedom for African Americans today."
Juneteenth: An invitation for refection in the Golden State
Juneteenth celebrates the day that Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and proclaimed the Civil War to be over and, subsequently, slavery abolished throughout the United States.
This date was declared a national holiday in 2021 by Former President Joe Biden, and declared a state holiday in California in 2022. But its real-world application had been negligible up until this point. Starting in 2025, Juneteenth will now be a formal public holiday in California, one of reflection and remembrance regarding this historical moment.
As Newsom phrased it, until today, Juneteenth was a sort of "second Independence Day" but not a holiday.
Finally, the governor of the Golden State added: "In misguided attempts to rewrite the history of our nation, California is committed to confronting the uncomfortable pages of our history in order to work toward a more perfect union."
