Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter and the sixth Sunday and final day of Lent. The day marks the occasion when Jesus rode on a donkey and entered Jerusalem. It is called Palm Sunday because people in Jerusalem cut palm branches and waved them in the air and laid them out on the ground before Jesus rode into the city.
In biblical times, it was common for kings and important people to arrive by a procession riding on a donkey. The donkey symbolized peace, so those who chose to ride them showed that they came with peaceful intentions.
Palm Sunday is one of the most important days in the Christian calendar after Christmas and Easter. Catholic churches bless palm branches with holy water and them distribute them to congregants.
Palm Sunday rituals vary by geography. When we were living in the Philippines, on Palm Sunday a statue of Christ riding a donkey (the Humenta,) or often the presiding priest on horseback, is brought to the local church in a morning procession. Congregants line the route, waving ornately woven palm branches, called palaspás, and spreading aprons (tapis) made for this ritual in imitation of the excited Jerusalemites. At the entrance to the church, children dressed as angels scatter flowers as they sing traditional tunes. The first Mass of the day then follows.
Once blessed, the palaspás are brought home and placed on altars, doorways and windows. The Church teaches that this is a sign of welcoming Christ into the home, but many believe that the blessed palaspás are apotropaic, deterring evil spirits, lightening and fires. Another “folk” custom is to feed pieces of blessed palaspás to roosters used in cockfighting. This practice was strongly discouraged by the Archbishop of Manila. In the provinces in the Philippines, the flowers strewn by the angels during the procession are added to the rice seeds being planted, in the belief that these will ensure a bountiful harvest.
So no matter how you celebrate Palm Sunday, it is an occasion for reflection on the final week of Jesus’ life — a time to prepare our heart for the agony of His Passion and the joy of His Resurrection.
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