Sunday, April 2, 2023, Christians will celebrate Palm Sunday, associated according to the Bible with the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ on the back of a donkey into Jerusalem, greeted by a crowd brandishing twigs – branches cut from trees – and laying clothes in its path.
A passage from the Gospel according to Saint John (12.12) is often repeated in the church during the opening of the Palm Sunday mass.
“The large crowd that had come for the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem; they took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet him and they cried: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
During the celebration, branches are blessed by the priest. According to Christian tradition, it is customary to bring these branches home after this blessing to associate them with crucifixes and other religious icons in the house.
Burn the twigs for Ash Wednesday
Still according to Christian tradition, the branches brought home are kept until the following year. The driest branches are burned.
The ashes are then collected and used by the priest during the Ash Wednesday ceremony to draw a cross on the foreheads of the faithful. It symbolizes the fragility of life.
