Mississippi is one of four states still observing Confederate Memorial Day as an official state holiday. It is celebrated in Mississippi on the last Monday of the month. This year, it is on April 29.

It is also a state holiday in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas.

As a state holiday, employees are entitled to a paid day off. Most state offices will be closed Monday; however, local city and county offices will be open.

State legislators allowed government offices to trade out taking off on Good Friday and working on Confederate Memorial Day, which Oxford and Lafayette County generally elect to do each year.

Federal offices, courts and the U.S. Post Office will be open as it is not a federal holiday.

The holiday was originally publicly presented as a day to remember the estimated 258,000 Confederate soldiers who died during the American Civil War.