
Palm Sunday
April 13
Palm Sunday is the final Sunday of Lent, thebeginning of Holy Week, and commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ inJerusalem, days before he was crucified.
On Palm Sunday, the faithful receive palmfronds which they use to participate in the reenactment of Christ’s arrival inJerusalem. In the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a young donkey, andto the lavish praise of the townspeople who threw their cloaks, or possiblypalms or small branches, in front of him as a sign of homage. This was acustomary practice for people of great respect.
Palm branches are widely recognized symbol ofpeace and victory, hence their preferred use on Palm Sunday.
The use of a donkey instead of a horse ishighly symbolic, it represents the humble arrival of someone in peace, asopposed to arriving on a steed in war.
During Palm Sunday Mass, palms are distributedto parishioners who carry them in a ritual procession into church. The palmsare blessed and many people will fashion them into small crosses or other itemsof personal devotion. These may be returned to the church or kept for the year.
Because the palms are blessed, they may not bediscarded as trash. Instead, they are appropriately gathered at the church andincinerated to create the ashes that will be used in the follow year’s AshWednesday observance.
The colors of the Mass on Palm Sunday are redand white, symbolizing the redemption in blood that Christ paid for the world.