How will you celebrate Confederate Memorial Day?

You WON’T be going to the DMV, so just forget about it. Local writer and Twitterer Max Blau posted this photo yesterday, a sign on the door of the Georgia Department of Revenue’s Motor Vehicles Division’s offices informing its patrons that it will be closed for business on April 23 in observation of Confederate Memorial Day. I grew up in the South (for the most part) and I’ve been in Georgia for two years, but this is a thing I’d not heard of ...

Here’s what I learned on the Internet. Confederate Memorial Day is technically April 26 in Georgia (the date of observance varies by state) because it’s the day Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston officially surrendered to General William T. Sherman, ending the Civil War in Georgia. It was an official state holiday until 1984, when the legislature decided to remove all state holidays from code. This meant General Lee’s and Jefferson Davis’s birthdays (January 19 and June 3, respectively) were no longer observed, but what the law did was leave it up to the governor to pick one of the three dates on which all things Confederate could be celebrated. April 26 is a Wednesday this year, so Monday, April 23 it is. Enjoy, state employees!