The Bluffton News

Easter Season Is Heralded By Palm Sunday To Be Observed Next Sunday

Commemorating the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem, Bluffton churches, along with the other churches of the nation, will observe Palm Sunday at services this coming Sunday.

Palm Sunday is always celebrated the week before Easter which comes this year on Sunday, April 25. The Bible records that the Christ made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem mounted on an ass.

At that time there were great multitudes of people who "spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cried, saying Hosanna, to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest." (Matt. 21:8-9.)

The enthusiasm of the people speedily cooled and the Christ who was honored on Sunday was put to a cruel and lingering death amid the applause of the populace on the following Friday.

From a very early date the Sunday before Easter was called Palm Sunday because on this day the church ordained that boughs of palm trees should be carried in procession, in imitation of those strewn before Jesus when he rode into Jerusalem.

The palms were consecrated by the priests. A portion of them was preserved to be burned for holy ashes to lay on the heads of the people on Ash Wednesday in the following year. The rest were distributed first among the assistant priests and next the congregation.

Wherever palms are obtainable they are used in the ceremony. In England where they are not available willow boughs are a favorite substitute. In American formal ceremonies are not as frequent as in Europe but most churches, both Protestant and Catholic, take note of the day in observances of various kinds.