What is Palm Sunday?

What is Palm Sunday?

This is the day when Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem triumphantly on a donkey.  Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy week which leads up to Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

• Dates for Palm Sunday
• The Palms in Palm Sunday
• Funny Story About Palm Sunday
• Maundy Thursday

Dates for Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is always one week before Easter.  Don't confuse Palm Sunday with Passion Sunday, which is the 5th Sunday in Lent (two weeks before Easter, one week before Palm Sunday).

• 2010 March 28th  (Easter April 4th)
• 2011 April 17th (Easter April 24th)

The Palms in Palm Sunday

Many churches remember Palm Sunday by tying palm leaves to crosses.  If no actual palm leaves are available, the church elders substitute woods such as yew; as a result they often refer to Palm Sunday as Branch Sunday.

Palm Sunday commemorates the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of the Passover.  [And not 'Remembering feet over the flyover'. as one schoolboy wrote.]

Funny Story About Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday
It was Palm Sunday but because of a sore throat, 5 year old Sammy stayed home from church with a babysitter.  When the family returned home, they were carrying several palm fronds.  Sammy inquired as to what they were for. 'People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by,' his father responded.

'Wouldn't you just know it?' Sammy complained, 'the one Sunday I don't go and he shows up.'

Maundy Thursday

The key to understanding the unusual word 'Maundy' is remembering Christ's commandment at the Passover.  This was the day when Jesus Christ commanded the 12 disciples to break bread and drink wine in his memory.  When the gospels were written in Latin, commanded was written as mandate (mandatory) and this later became transposed to 'Maundy'.

Until the Middle Ages the reigning monarch of England washed the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday.  While this custom died out after the reign of Charles II, the tradition of giving money to the poor lived on.  Our present Queen still bestows Maundy money to the needy on the Thursday before Easter Sunday.  These silver Maundy coins are specially minted, and four coins are placed in each bag.  One bag for each year of the monarch's age is then distributed to selected English men and women.

The basis for selection is two fold, recipients are pensioners who have given service to their community.  In 2009 Kathleen Grimwood aged 107, was among 83 women who received Maundy money from the Queen.  As usual, an equal number of men also received a pouch containing Maundy coins.

When is Maundy Thursday?

The question 'When is Maundy Thursday' reminds me of this old joke:
Where is the tiger's head?
Three feet from his tail.

When is Maundy Thursday? 
Three days before Easter Sunday.

• 2010 April 1st  (Easter April 4th)
• 2011 April 21st (Easter April 24th)

Good Friday

Really, there was little good about the first Good Friday, for this the day when Jesus Christ was crucified.  I have always thought that 'Bad Friday' would have been a better name for this crucial day in Holy Week.  This is a day when Judas's betrayal came to a head, and Jesus was put to death by a barbaric crucifixion on the orders of Pontius Pilot.

The 'Good' came three days later when according to the scriptures, Jesus rose again from the dead and was discovered by Mary Magdalene in the garden of Gethsemane

When is Good Friday?

• 2010 April 2nd  (Easter April 4th)
• 2011 April 2nd (Easter April 24th)

Note: In 2010, the 41st Oberammergau Passion Play takes place in Bavaria, Germany.  This religious festival was first performed in 1634, and since 1640 the village of Oberammergau has celebrated Christ's crucifixion and resurrection every ten years.

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