Today is the Sunday before Easter and begins Holy Week, sometimes referred to as Passion Week — today is Palm Sunday…. it’s also the sixth Sunday and final day of Lent.
Today is observed to mark the occasion when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey — people in Jerusalem threw palm leaves on the floor to greet Jesus.
On Palm Sunday, palm leaves are blessed and then collected to be burned into ash to be used in the following year’s Ash Wednesday celebration. People also make crosses out of palm leaves because they are considered a symbol of goodness and victory.
The colors of the Mass on Palm Sunday are red and white,symbolizing the redemption in blood that Christ paid for the world.
Jesus rode a donkey because in those times, it was common for kings or important people to arrive by a procession riding on a donkey. The donkey is a symbol of peace and riding on it showed the person had peaceful intentions.
Palm Sunday is one of the most important days in the Christian calendar after Christmas and Easter.
Pope Benedict XVI said, “Palm Sunday tells us that it is the cross that is the true tree of life.”
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