Palm Sunday – one of the most important dates in the Christian Calendar
Palm Sunday is on Sunday 24 March with the annual Christian commemoration marking the start of Holy Week. Palm Sunday is a major Christian day and one of the most important in the Christian calendar. It marks the last week of Lent. Palm Sunday is always celebrated on the Sunday before Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Churches celebrate the day with the blessing and distribution of palm branches, often in the form of small crosses. They also hold special services. The use of palms represents the branches the crowd scattered in front of Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem.
Holy Week is the week leading up to Easter Sunday when Jesus is said to have risen from the dead. The week also includes Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Good Friday marks the date of Jesus’ crucifixion.
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which the Bible describes in the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
According to the Gospels, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while crowds greeted him by waving palm branches and spreading their cloaks on the road before him. They shouted “Hosanna!” which means “Save us, we pray!” in Hebrew, and hailed him as the Son of David, a title indicating the long-awaited Messiah.