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What is Palm Sunday and how is it celebrated?
Christians across the world today (April 2) are marking Palm Sunday in the lead-up to one of the holiest days in the calendar – Easter Sunday.
Palm Sunday is observed by various denominations of the faith, including Catholics, Anglicans, and Methodists.
It signifies the beginning of Holy Week, and always falls on the Sunday before Good Friday (April 7) and Easter Sunday (April 9).
Here’s what you need to know about Palm Sunday.
What is Palm Sunday?
Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday, marks Jesus’ arrival to Jerusalem before his arrest on Holy Thursday and crucifixion on Good Friday.
It always occurs on the Sunday before Easter.
As Jesus approached the city, he asked his disciples to fetch a young donkey from a nearby village for him to ride in on, and was greeted by people waving palm leaves.
It is written in the Bible: ‘They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”.’
How is Palm Sunday celebrated?
Christians mark Palm Sunday with many traditions.
The day also offers time for reflection on the final week of Jesus’ life, his death and resurrection.
Usually, people mark Palm Sunday by attending parades, or going to Mass (church service), where they are given small crosses made of palms, or blessed palm leaves, to take home with them.
During the Middle Ages, Palm Sunday was an elaborate event: the service began in one church, then they went to a different church to get the palms blessed.
They then returned to the first church to sing the liturgy – which is the chanting by three deacons of the account of the Passion of Christ (Matthew 26:36–27:54).
At these services, there would often be music and a choir.
However, after the reforms of the Roman Catholic liturgies in 1955 and 1969, the ceremonies were simplified in order to emphasise the suffering and death of Christ and his selfless sacrifice.
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Palm Sunday comes from the fact that it honors Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, where the people carried palm branches. It can also be referred to as Passion Sunday, because the Gospel narrative of the Passion of Jesus is read during the liturgical celebrations. Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy Week, which is the last week of the Christian solemn season of Lent, preceding Eastertide.
In most Christian rites, Palm Sunday is celebrated by the blessing and distribution of palm branches (or the branches of other native trees), representing the palm branches which the crowd scattered in front of Christ as he rode into Jerusalem. These palms are sometimes woven into crosses. The difficulty of procuring palms in unfavorable climates led to their substitution with branches of native trees, including box, olive, willow, and yew. The Sunday was often named after these substitute trees, as in Yew Sunday, or by the general term Branch Sunday. In Syriac Christianity it is often called Oshana Sunday or Hosanna Sunday based on the biblical words uttered by the crowd while Jesus entered Jerusalem.
Many churches of mainstream Christian denominations, including the Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican, Moravian and Reformed traditions, distribute palm branches to their congregations during their Palm Sunday liturgies. Catholic Christians have a Mass following the blessings of the palms. Many Christians take these palms, which are often blessed by clergy, to their homes where they hang them alongside Christian art (especially crosses and crucifixes) or keep them in their Bibles and daily devotional books. In the period preceding the next year’s Lent, known as Shrovetide, churches often place a basket in their narthex to collect these palms, which are then ritually burned on Shrove Tuesday to make the ashes to be used on the following day, Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of Lent.
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Thank You
Christian Orb Team