Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a significant event in the Christian calendar, marking the celebration of Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem a week before Easter. This day initiates Holy Week, a period dedicated to remembering the final events of Jesus's life, including his suffering, death, and resurrection, collectively known as the Redemption. On this day, Jesus was welcomed by crowds who hailed him as a king, waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna," reflecting their hopes for liberation from Roman oppression. The significance of Jesus riding a donkey symbolizes humility, contrasting with the arrogance associated with a war horse. The accounts of this event are detailed in all four gospels of the New Testament, underscoring its importance in Christian theology. Different Christian traditions may celebrate Palm Sunday with unique customs, including the use of palm branches or other local foliage. The observance of this day has deep historical roots, including early pilgrimages to Jerusalem, where the celebration was documented as early as the 4th century CE. Overall, Palm Sunday serves as a reminder of the complexities of faith, hope, and the coming culmination of Holy Week.
Palm Sunday
For Christians the world over, Palm Sunday, commemorating Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, ushers in one of the most important and solemn weeks of the church year. A movable feast, Palm Sunday is always celebrated a week before Easter, and its date each year depends on the date set for Easter. The days between the two Sundays comprise Holy Week, a period especially devoted to the commemoration of the events of the last week of Jesus's life on earth. According to Christian belief, it was during Holy Week (sometimes called Great Week) that Jesus performed the essential work of the Redemption, that is, redeeming human beings from the bondage of sin.
Christian theologians hold that the Redemption is one unified event encompassing Christ's Passion (that is, suffering), death, and Resurrection. From the earliest times, Holy Week was considered the Christian Passover, signaling Jesus's passing over from this life to life with his heavenly father (God). The events and circumstances of the Redemption had been foretold in the Old Testament, and the New Testament records that Jesus alluded several times to his Passion, death, and Resurrection. The drama of the Redemption, the core of Christianity, began to unfold on Palm Sunday with Jesus's entry into Jerusalem.
Knowing full well what awaited him in Jerusalem, Jesus went to that holy city for the Feast of the Passover, according to Jewish custom. He was greeted as a triumphant king by the people, who had heard about or witnessed his miracles and looked to him as the temporal ruler sent in answer to their prayers for a leader who would deliver them from the domination of the Roman Empire. All four gospels in the New Testament record Jesus's entry into Jerusalem; the specific accounts are found in Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–10, Luke 19:28–40, and John 12:12–16. Among these biblical reports of the first Palm Sunday, the briefest is the summary found in the Gospel of John:
The next day a great crowd who had come to the feast [the Passover] heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, “Hosanna! Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young ass and sat upon it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold thy king is coming, sitting on an ass's colt!”
It is often stated that the animal Jesus chose to ride symbolized humility and was the antithesis of violence, war, or domination by force; and that the image of a horse, by contrast, would have been one of arrogance, as of a temporal ruler returning victorious from battle. In keeping with this, many Christians also hear on Palm Sunday a reading from Philippians (2:5-11):
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who…made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And…humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
The Palm Sunday account in the Gospel of John also explains the crowd's exuberant expectations concerning Jesus, and the Pharisees' antagonism, which would lead to his arrest, trial, and death:
The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see that you can do nothing; look, the world has gone after him.”
Celebration of Palm Sunday by Eastern Orthodox churches sometimes coincides with and sometimes follows the date set in the Western Christian churches. Throughout Holy Week, worship services are scheduled in the Albanian, Bulgarian, Carpatho-Russian, Greek, Russian, Serbian, Syrian, Ukrainian, and other Orthodox churches. Palms are distributed in some of the Eastern churches, but in others, branches of some other tree are used. This custom is particularly prevalent among those whose origins are in northern regions where palms are not available.
After the persecutions of Christians abated in the fourth century CE, people from many countries made Holy Week pilgrimages to Jerusalem. One such pilgrim, a Spanish woman named Eutheria (Etheria), or Silvia, kept a journal that provides one of the earliest accounts of the Palm Sunday celebration in Jerusalem, dating from about CE 390. It describes how the crowds of pilgrims gathered on the Mount of Olives and listened to the account of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, and then, singing and waving palm and olive branches, marched toward the city.
Grondelski, John. "Palm Sunday: Why the Palm Procession and Why Two Gospels." National Catholic Register, 23 Mar. 2024, www.ncregister.com/blog/palm-sunday-to-easter-through-the-liturgy. Accessed 1 May 2024.
Henao, Luis Andres. "What Is Palm Sunday and How Is It Celebrated?" Associatied Press, 23 Mar. 2024, apnews.com/article/palm-sunday-easter-holy-week-christianity-4c22eb51e413784fd4e7423b7c4ce2cb. Accessed 1 May 2024.
"The Story and Meaning Behind Palm Sunday." Worship Leader, 10 Feb. 2024, worshipleader.com/theology/story-behind-palm-sunday/. Accessed 1 May 2024.