PALM SUNDAY
PALM SUNDAY
(1) The blessings and processions of palms go back deep into early Christianity.
Palm Sunday, officially referred to as Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, marks the beginning of the Christian Holy Week, commemorating the triumphant entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem before his arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection.
(2) In most churches, palms are blessed and used in processions, but the core of the liturgy is a lengthy reading of the Passion, often with parts taken by the priest, lectors, and the whole congregation.
(3) It is in this reading where we find the passages of the Gospel of Matthew narrating how palm branches were placed in the path of Jesus Christ and waived at him as he entered the city.
(4). Christian iconography would then use the image of the palm branch (or palm leaves) to represent the victory of martyrs, Jesus Christ himself being the martyr par excellence.
(5) After the liturgy, Catholics take their palms home to serve as sacramentals.
(7). The following year, those palms will be burned to serve as the ashes for Ash Wednesday.
(8). According to records, by the 8th century, the liturgy of Passion Sunday was already quite elaborate. People would take their palms to a first church where the liturgy would begin, would walk in procession to a second church were the blessing of the palms took place, then returned to the first church where finally three deacons would read (chant, actually) the Passion.
(9) Consequent renovations of the liturgy would modify this celebration throughout the centuries, finally arriving to the canonical form used today.
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