Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is a Christian feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter, marking the beginning of Holy Week. The celebration commemorates Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels.

According to the Bible, Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, and the celebrating people there lay down their cloaks and small branches of trees in front of him, singing part of Psalm 118: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory in the ancient world.

In many Christian churches, Palm Sunday includes a procession of the assembled worshipers carrying palms, representing the palm branches the crowd scattered in front of Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem. The difficulty of procuring palms in unfavorable climates led to their substitution with branches of native trees, including box, olive, willow, and yew.

The palms or branches are often blessed and may be returned to the church, where they are burned to create the ashes that will be used in the following year's Ash Wednesday observance.

The liturgy of Palm Sunday typically includes a reading of the Passion narrative, the story of Jesus' suffering and death, to remind worshippers of the solemnity of the occasion and the significance of Holy Week.