Solemnity of Palm Sunday

Today is gonna be the start of the Holy Week a celebration which every Christian all over the world celebrated. It was celebrated during the last week of Lent and the week of before Easter. And today (Sunday) we all celebrating the"Palm Sunday" palm Sunday is considered a Christian movable feast that is always fall on the Sunday before the Easter Sunday. This is the a celebration that commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, and this happen a week before Jesus death and resurrection. For many Christian churches, Palm Sunday, often referred to as "Passion Sunday," marks the beginning of Holy Week, which concludes on Easter Sunday. The Bible reveals that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowds greeted him by waving palm branches and covering his path with palm branches. Immediately following this great time of celebration in the ministry of Jesus, he begins his journey to the cross. 

Palm Sunday  here in the Philippines are celebrated several churches all over the archipelago for a Palm Sunday services or mass, Me and my family we commemorate and participated in this celebration through attending the first Sunday morning mass. normally before you enter the church there were long lane of vendors selling of what we called "Palaspas"  This is made from young coconut palm leaves, locally called ibus, which have not opened and was decorated and woven into many different designs, ranging from the traditional heart shape,kidlat (lightning), and espada (sword), to bola (ball), ibon (bird), hipon(shrimp), crosses, bows, and even woven into mat-like patterns. The palaspas is then finished off by a touch of color in the form of crepe paper roses attached near the handle. After the mass this palaspas will be blessed by the priest and after the mass it was brought to home and it will be hung on the doors of houses because several beliefs have been associated with the palaspas and the most popular being the use of the consecrated palaspas as a talisman to ward off evil. The Palaspas will be requested by the priest the following year's to be given to the church as they will burned the old and dry Palaspas for Ash Wednesday. 

Palm Sunday for us Christians is not just a a feast that tells us that the "Mahal na Araw" or the Holy Week  is already started but this is also a powerful reminder of our own weakness and the sinfulness that causes us to reject Christ. Palm Sunday is beginning of Jesus painful journey in the hands of his persecutors the very same people who greeted Christ with shouts of joy on Palm Sunday would also call for His Death and Jesus accepted this tough and tall order from God the Father for the salvation of our soul because God's love is unconditional and ever lasting.