As Jesus journeyed from Bethany to the Passover feast in Jerusalem, he was joined by his followers and other Passover pilgrims, all jubilantly proclaiming him the Messiah. Only days earlier he had raised Lazarus from the dead, called him out of the tomb, performing a miracle of his power over death. News of this miracle, witnessed by many, spread rapidly, and more people “began to believe in him” (Jn 11:45); they were convinced that he was the long-awaited Anointed One.

During the Passover festival, the number of visitors increased the population of Jerusalem many times its normal size. Often, pilgrims who had already reached the city would go out and greet others who were arriving. Jesus, riding on a donkey, was thus greeted by people from the city who had heard about the Lazarus miracle. The sight must have been spectacular, as they shouted words of praise and waved palm branches — symbols of joy and victory — while claiming Jesus as their savior.

The Gospel writers describing that day tell us that palm and other branches were used to herald Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. St. John says, “On the next day, when the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him” (Jn 12:12-13). The synoptic Gospels all similarly and vividly describe his triumphant entrance into the holy city on the day we still remember and humbly try to replicate. The Gospel writers depict our Savior being welcomed by an exuberant crowd singing hosannas, shouting, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” waving palms and other leafy branches, spreading those branches and their cloaks on the road before him (Mt 21:8-9; Mk 11:8-9; Lk 19:36-38). Some in this excited crowd will later that same week mock, ridicule and condemn the one they, on this morning, call their king.

This acclaim over Jesus was not lost on the high priest and Pharisees plotting against him; they especially noted the people waving palms normally reserved for kings and conquering heroes. They would have remembered the words in Zechariah regarding a victorious king humbly riding on a donkey while entering Jerusalem (Zec 9:9), as well as a verse in 1 Maccabees: “Jews entered the citadel with shouts of praise (and) the waving of palm branches” (1 Mc 13:51).

History of Palms and Palm Sunday

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is commemorated every Palm Sunday with priests in parishes everywhere blessing palm branches before clergy and laity process into the church with songs of adulation. Alas, some parishes can’t or don’t hold a procession; other options for honoring the entrance of Jesus are provided in the Roman Missal. If a procession is held on Palm Sunday, there should be only one, according to the Dicastery of Divine Worship: “The [Palm Sunday] procession may take place only once, before the Mass which has the largest attendance” (Circular Letter Concerning Preparation for Easter Feasts, Feb. 20, 1988). Many parishioners hold the palm branch while standing as the Passion is read during Mass, recalling the Book of Revelation: “A great multitude … stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands” (7:9).

Palms, for centuries, have been signs of victory, of joy, of triumph. The symbol of a palm branch was carved into buildings in ancient Rome, athletes were given palm branches to celebrate a victory, people waving palm branches greeted armies returning victorious from battle, and a palm was inscribed on the tomb of a martyr indicating that the interred person was victorious over evil. Palms in desert regions were signs of life.

As long ago as the fourth century, a procession with palms was included in the celebration of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. In the early 380s, a pilgrim from Spain named Egeria (or Etheria) was visiting the Holy Land and documented in her diary what she witnessed on Palm Sunday: “Accordingly at the seventh hour all the people go up to the Mount of Olives, that is, to Eleona, and the bishop with them, to the church, where hymns and antiphons suitable to the day and to the place are said, and lessons in like manner. And when the ninth hour approaches, they go up with hymns to the Imbomon, that is, to the place whence the Lord ascended into heaven, and there they sit down, for all the people are always bidden to sit when the bishop is present; the deacons alone always stand. Hymns and antiphons suitable to the day and to the place are said, interspersed with lections and prayers. And as the eleventh hour approaches, the passage from the Gospel is read, where the children, carrying branches and palms, met the Lord, saying; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, and the bishop immediately rises, and all the people with him, and they all go on foot from the top of the Mount of Olives, all the people going before him with hymns and antiphons, answering one to another: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. And all the children in the neighborhood, even those who are too young to walk, are carried by their parents on their shoulders, all of them bearing branches, some of palms and some of olives, and thus the bishop is escorted in the same manner as the Lord was of old” (“The Pilgrimage of Etheria,” McClure and Feltoe, MacMillian, New York, 1919).

A blessing of the palms was introduced as part of Palm Sunday in the ninth century, and there was almost always an organized procession, with the faithful carrying palm branches.

What to Do with Blessed Palms

The laity often ask what they should do with blessed palms. The short answer is, treat them as the blessed item they are and eventually return them to the parish to be burned so the ashes can be used for the next Ash Wednesday. Burial is another option for disposing of a blessed object; what we can’t do is simply throw Palm Sunday palms into the trash.

Catholic faithful have long found ways to preserve blessed palms brought home from Palm Sunday Mass; they do not hide them away but give them a place of honor, a reminder that because of our Savior, each of us can achieve victory over death. A palm is often used to adorn a crucifix or holy picture, or the blessed branches are placed above an inside door. Some of the faithful fasten small parts of a palm branch onto the clothing they wear to Holy Week Masses. Others weave them into a cross or other religious symbols and hang them in a conspicuous location in or around the house.

Through the blessing of the priest, palms have become a sacramental, deserving of proper care and respect, never to be treated as a kind of charm. They should inspire us and help us in our spiritual life, pointing toward the victory which by his death Christ won over the grave.

D.D. EMMONS writes from Pennsylvania.