Palm Sunday Procession

 A photo a week from our life in Christ in the Orthodox Church

Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, known in the West as Palm Sunday, is the Sunday immediately before Pascha.  On this Sunday, the Church remembers the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Word had spread that Jesus was the Christ and the people reacted to his entrance with honor and reverence waving palm branches and spreading their cloaks on the ground as He approached.  Today, as is tradition, palm fronds, pussy willow branches or olive branches are blessed the day before and distributed to the parish. Some congregations lay these palms out on the floor before the priest carries the Holy Mysteries into the knave during the Great Entrance.  Other churches have processions after the liturgy where parishioners wave their palms and sing the daily troparion:

Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. 

O Christ our God When Thou didst raise Lazarus from the dead before Thy Passion, Thou didst confirm the resurrection of the universe. Wherefore, we like children, carry the banner of triumph and victory, and we cry to Thee, O Conqueror of death, Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.