Palm Sunday
From Freepedia
Palm Sunday is a moveable feast in the church calendar observed 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 March 15 and April 18.
Palm Sunday is a celebration of the 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. Upon this day He entered Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate to make His prophesied appearance as Messiah. This was the terminus of the first 69 weeks of Daniel's Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. It is for this reason that Palm Sunday is considered by many Christians and Messianic Jews to be a very important day in holy history. This particular day on the Hebrew Calendar was the tenth day of Nisan. It marked the time when the Passover lambs were sent up for examination. This day in the year of the Passion saw Messiah presented as the Sacrifice Lamb. It heralded His impending role as the Suffering Servant of Israel prophesied by Isaiah (53).
In ancient times, the palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory. (Leviticus 23:40 - Feast of Tabernacles, and Revelation 7:9) It was also a custom in all lands to cover, in some way, the path of someone thought worthy of the highest honour. Consequently, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowd greeted him by waving palm fronds, and carpeting his path with them, thereby giving the day its name.
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. Concomitant with this revision, the entire week before Easter was redesignated Passion Week (formerly called "Holy Week" officially, and still usually referred to as such by the general public). 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 Eastern Orthodox Church, Palm Sunday is often called the Entry 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. In the Russian Orthodox Church, the custom developed of using pussy willows instead of palm fronds because palm fronds were not readily available. It is not determined what kind of branches should be used, so some Orthodox believers uses olive branches.
External links
- Catholic Palm Sunday Traditions
- An Order of Service for Palm Sunday
- Palm Sunday as the terminus of the first 69 weeks of Daniel's Prophecy of Seventy Weeks.
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