Palm Sunday

Photo: Roman Unashev

Orthodox Christians celebrate the entry of the Lord into Jerusalem on April 8, or Palm Sunday.

“On this day, we all rush to the temples of God, holding willow branches in our hands. Branches of a tree that, before anyone else in the spring, shows signs of life on our Russian land. And we do exactly the same as the inhabitants of Jerusalem when they heard what was coming to them Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ,” noted Archbishop of Tomsk and Asinovsky Rostislav in his sermon.

In Rus', this holiday has long been called Palm Sunday. The name comes from the fact that on this holiday believers come with branches, usually of willow plants - willow, willow, willow or other trees that are the first to bloom in the spring, in commemoration of those branches that were cut by the Jews who met Jesus in Jerusalem.