State, county and local offices across Mississippi were closed Monday to honor a holiday whose time has long passed.

Mississippi is among a handful of Southern states that still cling to the tradition of officially suggesting Confederate Memorial Day as a day worthy of distinction. The holiday needs to go away.

As it is, it’s simply a “free day” to most government workers. It would seem few, if any, actually attend any kind of official memorial of Confederate dead.

Most all businesses, schools and practically every other entity ignore the holiday, as they should.

Ridding the state of the holiday would in no way harm the memory or freedom to memorialize one’s ancestors in any way one chooses.

But it would make government just a little more efficient.

And by ceasing to hold onto the belief that the Confederacy should be memorialized more than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, would benefit our state’s image. Mississippi could certainly stand to improve our image.

Like the state flag, which contains a Confederate emblem, the future of Mississippi will be brighter when we all focus on it with one common vision, rather than looking back at our divisive past.