More Facts about Palm Sunday

Basic Facts about Palm SundayLiturgical Colour : Red 
Type of Holiday : Sunday Feast 
Time of Year : Sixth Sunday of Lent
Duration : One Day 
Celebrates / Symbolizes : Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem 
Alternate Names :Passion Sunday, Fig Sunday, Dominica in Palmis,Kyriake, Heorte Ton Baion, Heorte Baiophoros
Scriptural References : Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-40 

Palm Sunday is a movaeable feast in the church calendarobserved by Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians. It is the Sunday before Easter. In the Western church it must always fall on one of the 35 dates between 15 March and 18 April.

The feast commerates the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before his execution. This was the only day in which Jesus Christ set aside His ministerial role to make a political statement before His covenant people. Many Christians and Messianic Jews regard this event as the terminus of the first 69 weeks of Daniel's Prophecy of seventy weeks, and thereby a very holy day. Even setting this aside, the nature of the entry and its circumstances are usually deemed enough to warrant a special feast.

It was also a common custom in many lands in the ancient near East to cover, in some way, the path of someone thought worthy of the highest honour. All of the Gospels report that people gave Jesus this honor. In Mark, Matthew, and Luke they are reported as laying their garments and cut rushes on the street. John is the only Gospel to specifically mention palm branches.The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory (Leviticus 23:40 - Feast of Tabernacles, and Revelation 7:9). Because of this the detail of the palm branches and the scene of the crowd greeting Jesus as he entered Jerusalem by waving palm fronds, and carpeting his path with them, has given the day its name.

Observation in the Liturgy

Originally the Roman Catholic church officially called this Sunday the Second Sunday of the Passion; in 1970 the formal designation was changed to Passion Sunday, a change that has caused considerable confusion because the latter term had heretofore been affixed to the previous Sunday, or the fifth within Lent. In the Passion Week liturgy, on Palm Sunday palm fronds (or in colder climates some kind of substitutes) are blessed outside the church building and a procession enters, singing, re-enacting the entry into Jerusalem. These palms are saved in many churches to be burned later as the source of ashes used in Ash Wednesday services.The Roman Catholic Church considers the palms to be sacramentals.

In the Episcopal Church in the United Statets of America, the day is officially called The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday; however, in practice it is usually termed "Palm Sunday".

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Palm Sunday is often called the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, and is the beginning of Holy Week. The day before it is Lazarus Saturday, remembering the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. On Lazarus Saturday believers often prepare palm fronds by knotting them into crosses in preparation for the procession on Sunday.