Palm Sunday, a Holy Day of obligation, is known as the last Sunday of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week. It was originally celebrated in the Jerusalem Church, as it commemorates the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem, days before his crucifixion.
By the fifth century, the celebration had spread as far as Constantinople. It wasn’t until the sixth and seventh centuries that the ritual blessing of the palms was added. By the eighth century, the Western Church was celebrating “Dominica in Palmis” or “Palm Sunday.”
In the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a young donkey, and to the lavish praise of the townspeople who threw clothes, or possibly palms or small branches, in front of him as a sign of homage, which was a customary practice for people of great respect.
Palm Sunday is celebrated in all major Christian churches—Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox. In many Orthodox churches, Palm Sunday is known as
Entry into Jerusalem.
Today, many of the Palm Sunday traditions remain the same. Parishioners attend Mass on Sunday awaiting the blessed palms and the ritual procession to enter the church. The palms are blessed prior to Mass and are taken home. These palms are placed in houses, cars, barns, fields and other locations; often being crafted into crosses.
These palms may be returned to the church or kept for the year.
Because the palms are blessed, they may not be trashed. Instead, they are appropriately gathered at the church and incinerated to create the ashes that will be used in the follow year's Ash Wednesday observance.