Palm Sunday is the sixth and last Sunday of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week, a Sunday of the highest rank, in which not even commemoration of any kind is permitted at Mass. In common law it marks the beginning of Easter duties. The Roman missal indicates the station of San Juan de Letrán (see days of station) and before September 1870, the Pope performed the ceremony there. The Greeks celebrate the day with great solemnity; They call it kyriake or heorte ton baion or heorte baiophoros or also Lazarus Sunday, because the day before they have the feast of the resurrection of Lazarus. Emperors used to distribute palm branches and small gifts to their nobles and households.
The Latin liturgical books call it Dominica in Palmis, Dominica or Dies Palmarum. The day has received the name of Dominica Hosanna or simply Hosanna (Ozanna) from the cry of the people during the procession. Because each great festival was in some way a memory of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and, consequently, was called Pascha, we find the names Pascha floridum, in French Pâques fleuries, in Spanish Pascua florida, and it was from this day in 1512 that the state of Florida (USA AA) was named after him (Nilles, II, 205). The terms Dominica florida and dies floridus arose from the custom of blessing the flowers and intertwining them between the palms. Flower Sunday was well known in England, in Germany, as Blumensonntag or Blumentag, as well as among Serbs, Croats, and Ruthenians, in the Glagolitic breviary and missal, and among Armenians. The latter celebrate another Palm Sunday on the seventh Sunday after Easter to commemorate the “Ingressus Domini in coelum juxta visionem Gregorii Illuminatoris” called Secundus floricultus or Secunda palmarum dominica (Nilles, II, 519).
Since this Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week, during which sinners were reconciled, it was called Dominica indulgentioe, cormpetentium, and capitilavium after the practice of washing and shaving the head as a physical preparation for baptism. During the first centuries of the Church this sacrament was solemnly conferred only on the night of Holy Saturday, after the text of the Creed had been made known to the catechumens on the previous Palm Sunday. This practice was followed in Spain (Isidore, “De off. eccl.”, I, 27), in Gaul (PL, LXXII, 265), and in Milan (Ambrose, Ep. XX). In England the day was called Branch or Olive Sunday, Yew Sunday, Willow or Bloom Sunday, or Willow Branch Sunday. Since the celebration recalled the solemn entry of Christ into Jerusalem, people made use of many picturesque and realistic representations; thus, a figure of Christ seated on a donkey, carved in wood, was carried in the procession, and even brought to the church. These figures can still be seen in the museums of Basel, Zurich, Munich and Nuremberg (Kellner, 50).
In some places in Germany and France there was a custom to scatter flowers and green branches around the Cross in the cemetery. After the recitation of the Passion at Mass, palms were brought and this Cross (consequently sometimes called the Palm Cross) was draped and adorned with them to symbolize Christ’s victory. In Lower Bavaria boys went through the streets singing the “Pueri hebraeorum” and other Christmas carols, from which they received the name Pueribuben (“Theologisch-praktische Quartalschrift”, 1892, 81). Sometimes an uncovered crucifix, or the Gospel book, and often the Blessed Sacrament, were carried in procession. In many parts of England a large and beautiful tent was set up in the churchyard. Two priests accompanied by lights brought the Blessed Sacrament in a beautiful cup or pyx hung from a free-standing shrine to this tent. A long procession with palms and flowers left the church and made four stations in the cemetery of the laity to the north of the church, on the south side, at the west door and before the cross of the cemetery, which was then uncovered. At each of these stations the Gospels were sung. After the singing of the first Gospel, the urn with the Blessed Sacrament was carried forward. When they met, they all prostrated themselves and kissed the ground; then the procession continued. The door of the church was opened, the priests held up the glass with the Blessed Sacrament, so that all who entered had to pass under it, and thus the procession returned to the church. The introduction of the Blessed Sacrament in the Palm Sunday procession is generally attributed to Blessed Lanfranco, who ordered the ceremony for his Abbey of Bec.
Liturgical writers differ in allocating a time for the introduction of the blessing of palms and the procession. Martène, (“De Antiq. eccl. discipl.”, XX, 288), finds no mention of them before the eighth or ninth century. Peliccia, (“Christian. Eccl. politia”, II, 308), is of the same opinion, and mentions Amalario, (“De div. Off., I, X) as the first to speak of them. Binterim, (V, I, 173) based on the authority of Severus, patriarch of Antioch, and Joshua Stylites, establishes that Peter, bishop of Edessa, around the year 397, ordered the blessing of the palms for all the churches of Mesopotamia . The ceremonies probably had their origin in Jerusalem. In the “Peregrinatio Sylviae”, carried out between 378 and 394, they are described as follows: On the Lord’s Day, which begins the Easter week, or major week, after having performed all the usual exercises from cockcrowing to tomorrow in the Anastasia and in the Cross, they went to the main church behind the Cross of Golgotha, called the Martyrdom, and there the ordinary Sunday services were held. At the seventh hour (one o’clock in the afternoon) all proceeded to the Mount of Olives, Eleona, the cave in which Our Lord used to teach, and for two hours hymns, anthems and readings were recited. Around the hour of nona (3:00 pm) everyone went, singing hymns, to the Imbomon, where Our Lord ascended to heaven. Two more hours were spent here in devotional exercises, until five in the afternoon, when the Gospel passage was read that relates how the children carrying branches and palms received the Lord, saying: “Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord!” Mister”. Hearing these words, everyone returned to the city, repeating “Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord.” All the children carried palm or olive branches. The faithful crossed the city towards the Anastasia, and there they recited vespers. Then, after a prayer in the church of the Holy Cross, everyone returned to their homes.
In the three oldest Roman sacramentaries there is no mention of either the blessing of the palms or the procession. The first mention is found in the “Gregorianum”, used in France in the 9th and 10th centuries. In it is found among the prayers of the day one that pronounces a blessing on the bearers of the palms, but not on the palms. The name Dominica in palmis, De passione Domini appears in the “Gelasian”, but only as a superscription, and Probst (“Sacramentarien und Ordines”, Münster, 1892, 202) is probably correct in suspecting that the first part is an addition, and that the original inscription is De passione Domini. It seems certain that the carrying of palms during services was the earlier practice, then came the procession and later the blessing of the palms.
The main ceremonies of the day are the blessing of the palms, the procession, the Mass, and, during the Mass, the singing of the Passion. The blessing of the palms follows a ritual similar to that of the Mass. On the altar palm branches are placed between the candles instead of flowers are usually used. In the middle of the candlesticks on the altar, palm branches are placed instead of the flowers ordinarily used. The palms to be blessed are on a table next to the epistle or, in cathedrals, between the throne and the altar. The bishop conducts the ceremony from the throne, the priest on the Epistle side of the altar. An antiphon, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” is followed by a sentence. The epistle of Exodus 15,27 – 16,7 is read, which narrates the murmuring of the children of Israel in the desert of Sin, and sighing for the pots of Egypt, and gives them the promise that he will send them manna as food from the sky. The gradual contains the prophetic words spoken by the high priest Caiaphas “that it was necessary for a man to die for the people”; and another the prayer of Christ in the Garden of Olives so that the chalice would pass; also his exhortation to the disciples to watch and pray. The Gospel, taken from Saint Matthew, 16:1-9, describes Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem when the people cut branches from the trees and spread them out as he passed, shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is the who comes in the name of the Lord.” (In private Masses this Gospel is read at the end of Mass instead of St. John’s). This is followed by a speech, a preface, the Saint and the Benedictus.
In the five prayers that are said afterwards, the bishop or the priest asks God to bless the palm or olive branches, that they be a protection to all the places to which they are taken, that the right hand of God expels all adversities, bless and protect all those who live in them, who have been redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ. The prayers refer to the dove that brought back the olive branch to Noah’s ark and the crowd that greeted Our Lord; They say that the palm branches signify victory over the prince of death and the olive branches signify the advent of the spiritual anointing through Christ. The officiating priest sprinkles the palms with holy water, incenses them, and, after another prayer, distributes them. During the distribution, the choir sings the “Pueri hebraeorum”. The Hebrew children spread their cloaks on the road, and raise their voices saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Then follows the procession of the clergy and the people, who carry the blessed palms, meanwhile, the choir sings the antiphons “Cum appropinquaret”, “Cum audisset” and others. They all march out of the church. When the procession returns, two or four singers enter the church, close the door and sing the hymn “Gloria, laus”, which is repeated by those outside. At the end of the hymn the subdeacon knocks on the door with the staff of the cross, the door opens and everyone enters singing “Ingrediente Domino”. Mass is celebrated, whose main feature is the song of the Passion according to Saint Matthew, during which everyone has palms in their hands.
Palm branches have been used by all nations as an emblem of joy and victory over enemies; in Christianity as a sign of victory over the flesh and the world…