Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day but did you know that just a few years ago people in Virginia celebrated Lee-Jackson Day on the same day? I wasn’t even aware of Lee-Jackson Day. On Saturday the boyfriend and I went to one of the wineries we visit often. It’s located in a more southern county then were I live. We were chatting with one of the tasting associates about this and that and I asked her what she was doing for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and she said, “You mean Lee-Jackson Day?” I couldn’t believe my ears. I quickly asked her what that was. She informed me that Lee-Jackson Day is the day that Virginians celebrate the birthdays of Robert E. Lee (January 19th is Lee’s 200th birthday) and Stonewall Jackson and for years and years they had celebrated Lee-Jackson Day instead of King Day AND they got a day off work for it. This only ended a few years ago when our governor at the time moved Lee-Jackson Day to the Friday before King Day. That means many of Virginia’s State offices are closed on Friday and Monday. And from what I can find on the web, it’s still celebrated on the Friday before and they still get the day off. You can find out more about it here and here.

I’m from Northern Virginia and we’ve NEVER celebrated Lee-Jackson Day. I had never heard of it before. I had to do some more web searches to find it. It looks like Virginia is the only state that still celebrates it. The boyfriend and I were driving back from our Charlottesville weekend and we drove through several small towns in the central part of the state and I was amazed at seeing confederate flags still being flown on people’s houses and as stickers on cars and trucks. Damn, this state is so split. We have Northern Virginia which is liberal, educated, and in the 21st century and then we have the rest of the state that is still so backwards. We need to split off and create a new state and forget about the rest. I know, that won’t happen but the rest of the state needs to get it together and come into the 21st century.