Christians all over the world are making preparations for Palm Sunday, a holiday commemorating Jesus Christ’s final days on earth, his trial and crucifixion.
The Christian celebration, observed on the first of Holy Week, marks Jesus’s “triumphant entry” into the city of Jerusalem, which he rode into on a donkey and was welcomed by jubilant and palm-brach-holding crowds who thought he would release them from Roman oppression.
“Traditionally, worshipping Christians will receive palm branches or palm crosses on Palm Sunday as a tangible sign of Jesusโ โtriumphal entryโ into Jerusalem,” according to the University of Melbourne’s Trinity College. “And in some churches, Palm Sunday is also known as the Sunday of the Passion, when one of the Gospel passion narratives is read aloud during the liturgy.”
All of the events observed during Holy Week, including Palm Sunday, recount the events leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion and miraculous resurrection.
The first recorded Palm Sunday ceremony dates back to the 4th century in Jerusalem, but it wasn’t introduced to Western Christianity until about the 9th century, Mark Jobe, president of the Moody Bible Institute and founding pastor of the New Life Community Church in Chicago told USA TODAY in March 2023.
“Palm Sunday makes no sense unless you understand that shortly after, Jesus would die and pay the price for anybody, no matter prostitute or religious person, to forgive their sins and to give them an entrance into a new kingdom called the kingdom of Heaven,” Jobe said.
What does a modern Palm Sunday celebration look like?Palm Sunday ceremonies vary by denomination.
Some wear red or purple and engage in a “very celebratory worship service,” sing praise songs, and lift palm branches of various sizes, Vashti McKenzie, retired Bishop and former president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches, previously shared with USA TODAY.
The branches are blessed, taken home after the service and placed on desks or shelves to remember the event.###”Traditionally, some of the branches are saved,” she said. “They’re not given out to people. They are saved and when you get to Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent, the ashes come from those burnt palm branches.”
The Church of Bethesda by the Sea partitioners assembled 900 palm crosses and 900 palm strips on Wednesday, April 11, 2025.Palm Sunday is “a time of celebration” for Christians because it ” begins the journey of how God saved the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus,” McKenzie said.
“Jesus died on the cross and when he died on the cross, he died for all of us, not for some of us, not for a chosen few, but all of us,” she added.
What do palm branches symbolize?
Bethesda-by-the-Sea partitioner and flower guild member Cordella Miessau crafts one of 900 palm crosses that members at the church will assemble this year.The large, long palm branches were common in the Holy Land, Jobe said. In the ancient times, they symbolized goodness and victory.
“It wasn’t something unique to Jesus,” he told USA TODAY. “When kings would come to town or when conquering warriors would come in, they would welcome them with palm branches, which they would throw on the ground in front of them.”
During the Grecian Games, which were Greek sporting events, winners were also recognized for their achievement with palm branches, Jobe said. (USAToday)