Palm
Sunday is a Christian festival that falls on the Sunday before Easter. Continue
reading to find out about the meaning and scriptures of this feast!

First
of all, the feast is supposed to indicate the triumphs of Jesus Christ – the
ones he earned right before the entry into Jerusalem. As a Christian, you’d
know that this event has been mentioned four times in the canonical Gospels.
It’s the first day of the Holy Week and the last week of the Christian solemn
season of Lents.

What
does this festival signify? Is there any special symbolism that we perhaps
might not able to gauge as an outsider learning about the festival? These are
all the questions that come to our mind when we’re learning about a festival
unheard of.

Many
churches celebrate Palm Sunday as a day of blessings. There’s a proper
distribution of palm branches which represents the crowd that was scattered in
front of Christ when he drove to the Jerusalem. In some places – where palm
trees are not easily procured – the branches are substituted with the branches
of any native tree including a box of an olive, willow, and a yew.

Many
Christian churches like the Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican,
and Reformed traditions distribute palm branches to the attendees during their
Palm Sunday liturgies. These branches are blessed by clergy – they often bring
these branches back home and place them beside Christian art.

The
period after Lent is known as Shrovetide, where churches often place a basket
in the narthex to gather palm branches which they eventually burn to extract
ashes. This is done on the Wednesday following the Sunday and it is known as
Ash Wednesday.

Back
in the day, these palm branches were considered to be a sign of victory and
goodness. In fact, some even considered them to be more important than
buildings and coins.

Palm
Sunday symbolizes the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem— as we already
discussed—when palm branches were placed in his path, before his arrest on Holy
Thursday and his crucifixion on Good Friday. This day also marks the final day of
Lent and the beginning of a Holy Week.

In
many churches, children are provided palms that they carry to walk in a
procession inside the church. Roman Catholic Churches, along with Anglican and
Lutheran congregations, offer palm fronds with holy water outside the church
building. This particular event is known as Blessing of the Palms.

The
Catholic Church considers these palm blessings to be sacramental. The vestments
of the day are usually indicated by red – suggesting the ultimate sacrifice of
Christ which he made to fulfill his passion in Jerusalem. Anglican and Lutheran
churches call this day The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday.

It
is important for the worshippers to receive a fresh palm leave on Palm Sunday.
Some places on Earth find this ritual impractical, and so other customary
practices have been opted for instead.

Below
we have provided you a list of countries and how they celebrate Palm Sunday.

Belgium

One
of the last few Palm Sunday processions take place in Hoegaarden. Twelve
Apostles carry wooden statue of Christ all over the town and children go door
to door to offer boxes of Palm leaves or branches for coins.

Bulgaria

In
Bulgaria, Palm Sunday is called Tsvetnitsa which translates to flower – often
known as Flower’s Day. On this special day, people with names of flowers, like
Rosa, Nevena, Margarita, etc. celebrate.

England

In
England, Palm Sunday was known as the day when you burn the Jack-‘O’ Lent
figures. This happened till the 17^th century. The stone was abused
on Ash Wednesday and put in the parish for burning on Palm Sunday. The idea
behind this tradition is that it’s the best kind of revenge on Judas Iscariot –
the one who betrayed Jesus Christ.

Egypt

In
the Orthodox church of Egypt and Ethiopia, Palm Sunday is known as Hosanna. On
this day, Palm leaves are distributed and used as crucifixes, rings, and
decorative ornaments.

Finland

Children
dress up as Easter witches and go door to door to trade decorated pussy willow
branches for coins and candy. This is an old custom of Finland known as
virpominen.

Germany

Some
areas of Germany celebrate Palm Sunday with a twigs and willow box. In the
Southern region, the priest leads the processions while riding on a donkey –
sometimes it’s wooden – meanwhile there’s a figure of Christ placed next to it.

India

In
India, the palms are blessed by the priest conducting the procession. It is
later distributed to the people attending the Holy mass. They often fold the
palm fronds into palm crosses that are saved till Ash Wednesday.

Italy

Italy
follows a customary practice where it uses small olive branches which are easily
accessible in the Mediterranean region. These branches are placed outside their
house that stay there till the next year. Normally, they’re not used as a whole
as they’re big in size but instead their leaf strips are used. Also, people in
Italy use olive branches to decorate their Easter cakes as it symbolizes
positive things like birth.

Latvia

Here
Palm Sunday is known as Pussy Willow Sunday – meaning new life. They are
distributed to the faithful Christians. Another interesting ritual observed in
this country is that they wake children up from deep slumber with swats of a
willow branch.

Netherlands

In
the Netherlands, crosses are decorated with candy and
bread. Furthermore, the processions are held with oil lamps and it’s usually in
the night.

To
find out about Palm Sunday meaning  or an
in-depth understanding of the Christian year, like our page on Facebook.

Do tell us how you celebrate Christ’s
triumphant arrival or the Sunday before Easter! You should read Bible quotes
and scripture to get your facts rights about this Holy Week apart from this
article.