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Palm Sunday is an important church holiday. It is celebrated by Orthodox, Catholics and many Protestants. The official name of this day is the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, because the celebration is dedicated to this event. Many people in our country associate this day primarily with willow branches, which are actively sold the day before.
When is Palm Sunday celebrated by Orthodox Christians?
Every year Palm Sunday falls on a different date and is celebrated the week before Easter, or on the sixth Sunday of Lent. Orthodox Palm Sunday in 2023 will fall on 9 April.
When is Palm Sunday celebrated by Catholics?
The date of the holiday is calculated in the same way as in Orthodoxy. But the date of Palm Sunday, like Easter itself, does not coincide with Catholics and Orthodox. The discrepancy is connected, among other things, with the fact that the Julian calendar is used in Orthodoxy, and the Gregorian calendar in Catholicism. In 2023, the holiday for representatives of this branch of Christianity fell on 2 April.
history of the holiday
It is believed that the holiday originated in Jerusalem. Its appearance dates back to the XNUMXth century: then the Church introduced the custom of consecrating palm trees. Hence one of the names of the holiday is “week of vay” (Greek “vaia” – palm tree). Mentions of the holiday are found among the saints Ambrose of Milan and Epiphanius of Cyprus in the XNUMXth century. His images on sarcophagi belong to the same period. The title “Die dominica in palmas” (Sunday of the Palms) appears in the liturgical books of the Roman Rite from the end of the XNUMXth to the beginning of the XNUMXth centuries.
The essence of the holiday
This day is celebrated on the eve of the beginning of Holy Week and recalls the gospel events that preceded the suffering of Christ on the Cross and his Resurrection.
On Saturday, Jesus performed a miracle and resurrected Lazarus of Bethany. This shocked those present. Many who saw and heard about this event believed in Christ precisely after this event.
The next day, Sunday, he entered Jerusalem, where many pilgrims had gathered before the feast of the Jewish Passover. Jesus rode into the city on a young donkey, like David after the battle of Goliath. He was greeted as a winner, greeted with palm branches and a laudatory song: “Hosanna (salvation) to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” On the road along which he was traveling, people threw palm branches and spread clothes. It is from here that the Western tradition of consecrating palm branches takes its roots. In Our Country, they were replaced by willow.
Traditions of Orthodox Palm Sunday
In Orthodoxy, Palm Sunday is one of the twelve – the twelve most important holidays after Easter. Unlike other similar days, it has no forefeast and afterfeast. Sometimes Lazarus Saturday is called a prefeast.
The celebration begins with an all-night vigil, at which a special prayer is read. Prayers meet the invisibly coming Lord and greet Him, holding candles and willow branches in their hands – they replace palm leaves in our country. On the second part of the vigil, matins, a special prayer for the blessing “vay” is read. After it, the brought willows are sprinkled with holy water. It is believed that consecrated willows should be kept in the house for a year.
Traditions of Catholic Palm Sunday
In Catholicism, the festive service is preceded by a procession around the temple or in it. People with lit candles and branches (palm trees in the southern regions, willow branches in the northern regions) pass in their hands, singing festive antiphons and a hymn to Christ the King. Such a procession symbolizes the people who came out to meet Jesus during the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem.
After the procession, a mass is held, which includes the reading of the Passion of the Lord. They are read only on Palm Sunday and Good Friday.
The consecrated branches are kept in houses until the next Great Lent. On the day it begins – Ash Wednesday – they are burned.
Folk beliefs
In the old days, willow branches were treated – according to popular belief, they whipped a sick person on the back, saying the words:
“Willow, willow, willow,
Golden willow.
And I’ll whip the willow,
And I will say a saying:
Willow, give me health!
Willow was even given to livestock to rid the animals of disease.
The tradition of lightly hitting each other with a consecrated willow has survived to this day. The action is accompanied by the words: “I don’t beat, the willow beats!”. It is believed to bring health and well-being.