What is Palm Sunday?

Palm Sunday, officially known as Passion Sunday, is celebrated by Christian communities on the Sunday before Easter. It commemorates Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where he would be crucified days later. Christ’s procession into the city is described in the Bible, in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Gospel writers chronicle how Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while crowds placed palm leaves on the road before him and welcomed him into Jerusalem as their king. The first evidence of special Palm Sunday ceremonies dates to the 4th century in Jerusalem. The travelogue Peregrinatio Etheriae, or The Pilgrimage of Etheria, contains a personal written account of Christian pilgrims reenacting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. The Bobbio Sacramentary, dated to the 8th century, provides the earliest evidence of ceremonies in the West, including the practice of blessing palm leaves that continues today. Palms are blessed after the priest says a special prayer over them and sprinkles them with holy water during the Palm Sunday ceremony. By the Middle Ages, complex processional ceremonies were standard fare. They often involved starting a procession in one church, blessing palms in another, and returning to the first church to continue the procession with the blessed palms. The chanting of the Passion of Christ by three deacons followed. The Passion of Christ is the events of the final days of Christ’s life as described in the Gospels, often beginning with Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and concluding with Christ’s crucifixion. Some ceremonies in Germanic countries included a model of Christ riding a donkey, called a Palmesel, which was processed during the reading of the Passion. Reforms of the Roman Catholic liturgies by Pope Pius XII in 1955 and Pope Paul VI in 1969 simplified the modern Palm Sunday ceremony. Today the liturgy begins with the blessing and procession of palms, followed by a reading of the Passion. Palm Sunday services may use other plants if palm leaves aren’t available, including olive branches in Italy and pussy willows in Poland. Palms are taken home by members of the congregation as sacramentals. Later they are burned to be used as the ashes for Ash Wednesday the following year. In some Eastern Orthodox traditions, the Palm Sunday service includes the procession of a Palm Sunday icon that depicts Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. In parts of Wales and England, the holiday is known as Flowering Sunday, and people traditionally place flowers on the graves of loved ones on this day.