New York City is not monkeying around. It's become the second city in the country to recognize the Lunar New Year as an official school holiday. The change will go into effect next year, the year of the monkey.

As the state legislature moved closer to recognizing the holiday, Mayor Bill de Blasio, making good on a campaign promise, has made it an official day off from school for teachers and students. This comes after he added two Muslim holidays, Eid al-Firt and Eid al-Adha to the school year.

Speaking at P.S. 20 in Flushing, Queens on Tuesday, de Blasio said he wouldn't be adding any more holidays to the school calendar.

Students are mandated to attend 180 days of school each year. The Lunar New Year, Eid al-Firt and, Eid al-Adha fall on a different days each year, so the city says schools will make adjustments as necessary and won't be tacking on additional days to the calendar.

"I think its really great that parents don't have to make a choice between keeping their kids at home it takes a lot of anxiety away," said Joann Yoo, Executive Director of the Asian American Foundation, a group that has pressured the city to include the Lunar New Year. "I think it's [a] very empowering message for our kids."

In 2012, the last time Lunar New Year fell on a school day for all students, 62 schools saw their lowest attendance of the year. Roughly 15 percent of the student body — 146,434 children — missed school. The schools are clustered near the city's various Chinatowns, and in most of them at least a third of the population is Asian.

Linda Lee is the Executive Director of Korean Community Services, and the mother of a third generation Korean-American. For her, recognizing the holiday is an important part of her son's cultural education. "I don't want him to lose that culture I don't want to lose his heritage," she said. "So this is a great way to remind future generations where they came from."