Palm Sunday

The story behind the day

Palm Sunday falls one week before Easter and marks Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In the Catholic Church it solemnly opens Holy Week, and it is also called Passion Sunday. Worshippers carry blessed palms in procession, and the Mass includes the reading of the Passion. The Orthodox churches keep the same event as one of their twelve major feasts, on a date that sometimes follows the Western one because they reckon Easter differently. The name comes from the palm branches the crowd carried.^[1–7]

Origins

The Gospels record Jesus's entry into Jerusalem. In John's account, the great crowd that had come to the feast took palm branches, went out to meet him and cried 'Hosanna!', and hailed him as the king of Israel; Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it was written of the king who comes to Zion. Palm branches thus became the sign of the day.^[7–9]

What it marks

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the entry manifested the coming of the kingdom, and that the Church's liturgy begins Holy Week by observing that entry on Palm Sunday. Pope Francis described the day by its two characteristic moments, the opening procession with palms and the solemn proclamation of the Passion, so that joyful acclamation and the story of suffering stand side by side.^{[2, 4]}

How it came to be

The New Catholic Encyclopedia holds that the annual procession of the palms began in Jerusalem, as a commemoration of Christ's entry into the Holy City. The pilgrim Egeria, who most likely made her journey between 381 and 384, describes the Palm Sunday procession there, with small children carried by their parents and holding palm or olive branches. The day has also been called Passion Sunday.^{[3, 10]}

How it is kept

palm weaving on a Mediterranean church step — Palm weaving on a Mediterranean church stepIllustration · AI-generated

In Catholic parishes palms are distributed to the congregation and carried in procession into the church; the blessed palms are then taken home for private prayer, as a sacramental. The day links to the next year's Lent: the Church of England notes that palm crosses are often burned to provide the ashes for the following Ash Wednesday, as the Catholic bishops of England and Wales also describe.^[11–12]

Across traditions

In the Orthodox Church the Entry into Jerusalem is one of the twelve major feasts. Branches are blessed, and they are usually palms, though the Slavic churches use pussy willows. The Church of England likewise keeps the day one week before Easter. Because the Orthodox churches determine Easter by the older Julian method, their Palm Sunday sometimes coincides with the date in the Western churches and sometimes follows it.^{[1, 5–6, 13]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.